{"@attributes":{"version":"2.0"},"channel":{"title":"Environmental News - Environment, Earth Sciences","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/earth-news\/environment\/","language":"en-us","description":"The latest news on the environment, environmental issues, earth science and space exploration.","item":[{"title":"Infrastructure for African mines destroying forests at 34 times the rate of the mines themselves","description":"Industrial-scale mining in Africa to support global supply chains is leading to unprecedented deforestation across the continent, with 34 hectares of forest removed for every single hectare of active mine site.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-infrastructure-african-destroying-forests.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 16:00:03 EDT","guid":"news699720306"},{"title":"Africa's climate crisis is a legal crisis too: What are states' duties under human rights law?","description":"A landmark climate case is being heard by the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights. The request was brought by the Pan African Lawyers Union and other African civil society organizations. They've asked the court to issue advice on what responsibilities African governments have to protect their countries against the climate crisis and move away from an economy that harms the environment.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-africa-climate-crisis-legal-states.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 14:00:01 EDT","guid":"news699540222"},{"title":"NZ's new forestry rules promise consistency: Will they also increase environmental risk?","description":"One of the most important changes to New Zealand's environmental regulations in recent years came into force this week. Yet outside policy circles, the forestry sector and a handful of councils, few people are likely to have noticed.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-nz-forestry-environmental.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:20:01 EDT","guid":"news699859382"},{"title":"Canada's aerial wildfire\u2011fighting plan is a start\u2014but it is not yet a strategy","description":"The Canadian government recently announced that it will lease a fleet of 10 firefighting aircraft and other support assets to be deployed for the 2026 wildfire season. The plan will see these 10 leased aircraft being managed by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Center deployed strategically across the country and made available to provinces as they face intense wildfires.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-canada-aerial-wildfirefighting-strategy.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 11:00:01 EDT","guid":"news699706926"},{"title":"Volcanic eruptions linked to rising famine risk across China's history","description":"Large volcanic eruptions may have played a bigger role in triggering historical famines across China than previously understood, according to a new study that traced links between eruptions, climate disruption, and food shortages over more than four centuries.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-volcanic-eruptions-linked-famine-china.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 10:20:01 EDT","guid":"news699624109"},{"title":"Concerns over camper wastewater chemicals in regional wastewater systems","description":"The surge in caravan and camper usage within Australia could place extra pressure on regional wastewater treatment systems because of the chemicals commonly used in caravan and camper toilet systems, according to new research from Flinders University. When people using caravans empty their toilet waste at roadside dumpsites, caravan parks and regional dump stations, the wastewater\u2014which contains concentrated detergent, deodorizer and sanitizer chemicals\u2014is transported to local wastewater treatment plants.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-camper-wastewater-chemicals-regional.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Sat, 06 Jun 2026 09:30:02 EDT","guid":"news699866884"},{"title":"Drug-resistant bacteria found in homes from sewage overflow","description":"A new study shows that sewage overflows in homes can expose people to bacteria that can make them sick, including antibiotic-resistant and multidrug resistant bacteria which can make infections difficult to treat. The research was presented at ASM Microbe 2026 in Washington, D.C.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-drug-resistant-bacteria-homes-sewage.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:40:01 EDT","guid":"news699874201"},{"title":"India gained 2.1 million hectares of dry woodland in a decade, major study finds","description":"India gained around 2.1 million hectares of tropical dry woodland between 2014 and 2024\u2014an area larger than Wales\u2014according to a major new study involving researchers from The University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. The research was published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-india-gained-million-hectares-dry.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 11:00:06 EDT","guid":"news699870601"},{"title":"Ocean conservation needs strong relationships, not just targets","description":"With World Oceans Day coming up on June 8, policymakers and researchers will be thinking about the state of the ocean and efforts to protect marine environments.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-ocean-strong-relationships.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:40:04 EDT","guid":"news699870542"},{"title":"Wildfires are reversing America's progress on ozone pollution","description":"For decades, the United States made steady progress in reducing surface ozone pollution, the main ingredient in smog. But that progress\u2014made as vehicles, industries, and power sources became cleaner\u2014is increasingly being overshadowed by a different and growing source of ozone pollution: wildfires.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-wildfires-reversing-america-ozone-pollution.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 10:20:04 EDT","guid":"news699870482"},{"title":"With ShakeAlert installations complete, researchers explore offshore expansion","description":"The ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system has been rapidly expanding since its launch in 2021. Now, researchers at University of Washington affiliated Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) have finished all planned installations, bringing the two-state total to 569 seismic monitoring stations spread across Washington and Oregon.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-shakealert-explore-offshore-expansion.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:00:02 EDT","guid":"news699863161"},{"title":"Prescribed burns are lit in Australia's Northern Territory to minimize the severity of fires later in the season","description":"In May and June of most years, NASA satellites typically begin to detect large numbers of wildland fires throughout the Top End and Arnhem Land regions of Australia's Northern Territory. On some days, especially in the afternoon, the blazes can resemble sizable wildfires in satellite imagery, spreading widely and producing expansive smoke plumes.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-lit-australia-northern-territory-minimize.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:40:03 EDT","guid":"news699862862"},{"title":"From forest to front door: Understanding how wildfire spreads through communities","description":"As California's population boomed\u2014from 10 million in 1950 to over 40 million today\u2014the number of people living in fire-prone areas multiplied. Over the decades, millions of new homes and commercial buildings sprang up to accommodate the needs of the state's growing population, and many of those structures stand in areas prone to wildfires.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-forest-front-door-wildfire-communities.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:20:01 EDT","guid":"news699861962"},{"title":"Hidden meltwater found deep in Antarctic coastal waters reveals stronger climate impacts","description":"Freshwater from melting Antarctic glaciers may be influencing the Southern Ocean in ways scientists have largely overlooked. New research, published in Frontiers in Marine Science, has found that glacial meltwater is not confined to the ocean's surface, as previously assumed, but can also be detected much deeper in coastal waters along the Western Antarctic Peninsula.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-hidden-meltwater-deep-antarctic-coastal.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 08:00:06 EDT","guid":"news699710011"},{"title":"North Atlantic spring storms have grown more common since 1940, analysis reveals","description":"Storm Dave, which swept across northern Europe over the Easter weekend, is an example of what new research from the University of Gothenburg has revealed. Spring storms forming over the North Atlantic have become more common than they were 80 years ago, and this is due to climate change.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-north-atlantic-storms-grown-common.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 05:17:34 EDT","guid":"news699855408"},{"title":"Warming boosts natural methane emissions as microbes fail to keep pace","description":"A new study led by Professor Mark Trimmer of Queen Mary University of London, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, explains how increases in natural methane emissions will be maximized under future climate warming.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-boosts-natural-methane-emissions-microbes.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 05:00:03 EDT","guid":"news699785462"},{"title":"Billions face growing water risk as sediment fills reservoirs faster than expected worldwide","description":"Reservoirs around the world are losing storage capacity at an average rate of 7.3% per decade\u2014disproportionately affecting small reservoirs, which together provide water to billions of people. The data come from a study published in Nature Sustainability, which offers the clearest global assessment of reservoir sedimentation to date.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-billions-sediment-reservoirs-faster-worldwide.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Fri, 05 Jun 2026 05:00:02 EDT","guid":"news699808483"},{"title":"In Iowa, water pollution is a health threat that also disrupts summer fun","description":"Hannah Ray J Childs propelled her kayak into a rapid on Iowa's Maquoketa River on a recent afternoon and dipped her paddle in the water to swing the front of her boat into the air.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-iowa-pollution-health-threat-disrupts.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 21:00:01 EDT","guid":"news699794945"},{"title":"Managing hydrogen emissions is key to maximizing climate benefits as hydrogen use expands, say researchers","description":"Current estimates of hydrogen's climate impact are now sufficiently robust to inform policy and business decision-making, according to researchers in a new review article on the climate impacts of hydrogen emissions.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-hydrogen-emissions-key-maximizing-climate.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:00:02 EDT","guid":"news699804961"},{"title":"Smarter land use could unlock biodiversity, climate and economic gains across 146 countries","description":"National governments and multilateral institutions face difficult challenges reconciling environmental goals, such as biodiversity conservation and addressing climate change, with economic development goals. In a first-of-its-kind analysis done for 146 countries around the world, an interdisciplinary research team led by researchers at the University of Minnesota has found large potential gains in biodiversity, climate and economic development from improved land use and land management. The findings are published in Science.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-smarter-biodiversity-climate-economic-gains.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:00:01 EDT","guid":"news699807601"},{"title":"Measuring massive surge waves along the Illgraben","description":"Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have, for the first time, been able to record a debris flow over a distance of two kilometers at the Illgraben (VS). The study reveals where and how waves form within the flow and what happens when they pass over check dams.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-massive-surge-illgraben.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:20:04 EDT","guid":"news699804841"},{"title":"Easily overlooked small wetlands are a big source of global methane","description":"Waterlogged land areas such as marshes, bogs and fens are the world's largest natural source of methane. Even the smallest of wetlands emit this powerful greenhouse gas. In a study from The University of Texas at Austin, researchers have identified tens of millions of easily overlooked small wetlands across the globe and found that they have a substantial collective impact, accounting for 24% of the world's total non-forested wetland emissions of methane. This research is published in Nature Climate Change.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-easily-overlooked-small-wetlands-big.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:20:01 EDT","guid":"news699806401"},{"title":"School in a hot world: What research is saying about children's health and learning","description":"Climate change is making southern Africa hotter. While much attention has focused on climate impacts such as droughts, floods and food insecurity, another crisis is unfolding quietly inside classrooms. Research has shown that some schools are becoming dangerously hot places for children to develop, learn and play.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-school-hot-world-children-health.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 18:00:01 EDT","guid":"news699797147"},{"title":"Climate vulnerable residents in Nigeria are creating makeshift adaptation systems","description":"Residents in informal settlements in Lagos\u2014who are among the most vulnerable to climate change\u2014have developed sophisticated, multi-scale climate adaptation systems and are earning a living from climate action, a new study by Brianna Castro, assistant professor of urban sustainability at the Yale School of the Environment, found.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-climate-vulnerable-residents-nigeria-makeshift.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 15:20:02 EDT","guid":"news699795541"},{"title":"Global mangrove forests rebound, offering hopeful sign for climate and coastal resilience","description":"Mangrove forests, once considered one of the world's most threatened coastal ecosystems, are showing signs of recovery worldwide, according to new research from Tulane University that finds decades of losses largely offset by regrowth and expansion.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-global-mangrove-forests-rebound-climate.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:00:06 EDT","guid":"news699695101"},{"title":"Wildfires reverse decade of ozone cleanup in the United States, study reveals","description":"Ozone pollution has worsened in much of the continental United States over the past decade, fueled by wildfires and the long-distance transport of unhealthy air, according to a new study titled \"Fires reverse progress toward ozone air quality standards in the U.S.,\" led by University of Iowa researchers and published in the journal Science.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-wildfires-reverse-decade-ozone-cleanup.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:00:03 EDT","guid":"news699782161"},{"title":"On-demand Arctic observations with low-cost balloon systems could sharpen local storm forecasts","description":"Arctic communities are increasingly exposed to dangerous weather events due to climate change and rely on accurate weather forecasts. However, conditions in the lower atmosphere remain poorly observed in the Arctic because monitoring systems are expensive and difficult to deploy.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-demand-arctic-balloon-sharpen-local.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:40:06 EDT","guid":"news699792062"},{"title":"Buoys track ocean waves across 14,000 km, from storms in Antarctica to ripples in Alaska","description":"For the first time, mighty ocean waves generated in the Southern Ocean have been accurately measured all the way to the tiny ripples they form on the shores of Alaska. Professor Ian Young, from the University of Melbourne's Department of Infrastructure Engineering, is lead author on a landmark study that analyzed data from 300 drifting ocean buoys to gain a detailed understanding of how storms in Antarctica drive waves all around the globe.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-buoys-track-ocean-km-storms.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 13:00:05 EDT","guid":"news699790321"},{"title":"Understanding Earth's hidden east-west symmetry could improve climate models","description":"Earth is divided into two halves: the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Both reflect equal amounts of sunlight (albedo) even though they have different landmasses and weather patterns, especially cloud distribution. Why this is so is an ongoing mystery waiting to be solved.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-earth-hidden-east-west-symmetry.html","category":"Earth Sciences","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:00:06 EDT","guid":"news699787932"},{"title":"Home-sorted recycling produces higher-quality plastic bales with fewer contaminants, finds study","description":"The quality of recycled plastic tends to be higher when the waste is pre-sorted by households compared with plastics recovered from mixed waste at a recycling facility in the Netherlands, research in Nature suggests. While mixed waste (not pre-sorted) collections may increase overall recycling volumes, this comes at the cost of reduced quality of the recycled product. The findings highlight the need to improve recycling collection and sorting systems.","link":"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-home-recycling-higher-quality-plastic.html","category":"Environment","pubDate":"Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:00:04 EDT","guid":"news699787949"}]}}