Researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions have spotted a contradiction in worldwide wildfire trends: Despite a 26% decline in total burned area from 2002 to 2021, the number of people exposed to wildfires has surged by nearly 40%.| phys.org
Among the biggest culprits of plastic pollution in the ocean and along shorelines are thin plastic shopping bags, which have low recycling rates and often become litter when they blow away in the wind. Once there, they can entangle animals and break down into harmful microplastics. As awareness of this problem has grown, more than 100 countries have instituted bans or fees on plastic bags. But what effect those policies are having on the amount of plastic litter in the marine environment has ...| phys.org
The Inuit arrived in Greenland several hundred years earlier than previously believed, according to a study that mapped the genetics of sled dogs conducted by researchers from institutions including the University of Copenhagen.| phys.org
Many fish stocks around the world are either threatened by overfishing or have already collapsed. One of the main reasons for this devastating trend is that policymakers have often ignored the catch limits calculated by scientists, which were intended to be strict thresholds to protect stocks. But it has now become clear that even these scientific recommendations were often too high.| phys.org