#ensia

A decades-long study in California is shining a light on the impact of pesticides on childhood brain development, while getting young people directly involved in the research.

California, United States (Ensia) – In the fall of 2016, when sixteen-year-old Edgar Cardoso walked into the squat, beige biorepository at the University of California, Berkeley, he couldn’t help but feel kind of special. Among the more than 1,000 human samples stored in barcoded vials in freezers — everything from saliva to umbilical cord blood — Cardoso knew some were his.

Seeing it all for…

Transparent supply chains can help halt deforestation and protect Earth’s most vulnerable ecosystems.

World Wide (Ensia) – Our food is eating up the world’s tropical forests, thanks to growing global trade in agricultural commodities from tropical countries. Land for agricultural production comes at the cost of natural habitats, and habitat destruction affects the climate, water cycles and the species that live in them.

Perhaps nowhere is this more obvious than in the soybean industry. Soy is a…

Whether it’s using plants to power muscles, ancient buried carbon to transport ourselves, or nuclear reactions to light up the dark, humans always have — and always will — depend on energy

World Wide (Ensia)– Whether it’s using plants to power muscles, ancient buried carbon to transport ourselves, or nuclear reactions to light up the dark, humans always have — and always will — depend on energy to meet the basic needs of life. Exactly how we do that, though, is undergoing a change today as profound as the ones that moved us from depending on our own labor to horsepower, or from…

A 2008 interstate compact prevents distant dry places from siphoning off Great Lakes water. But will the agreement hold up in the face of growing demand?

United States (Ensia) – On the rocky beach at Little Girls Point County Park in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the heavy wash of Lake Superior seeking the shore rolls stones the size of softballs back and forth in the surf.

The power and immensity of the lake seems immutable. If there is anything in nature that will withstand the passing of time, this inland ocean would seem a likely candidate.

Pete…

As the federal government eases targets, a look at what gas mileage requirements really mean for vehicle mix, greenhouse gas emissions, jobs and more

United States (Ensia) – On March 15, 2017, U.S. president Donald Trump addressed carmakers at a newly constructed test track for self-driving cars and other mobility technology, the American Center for Mobility, in Willow Run, Michigan. “We’re going to work on the CAFE standards so you can make cars in America again,” he said.

The U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards were created…

Low-power wide-area networks — LPWANs — are finding application in everything from tracking rhinos in Tanzania to monitoring water quality in Ireland #Environment #Energy #LPWAN

(Ensia) –  The sun beats down on the dried Tanzanian soils. Dust is slowly settling back down to the ground in the wake of a parade of tourists’ vehicles, which are now disappearing over the horizon. It’s dry season in the Serengeti National Park, and safari trucks are groaning under the weight of excited visitors.

The park, a World Heritage Site, draws tourists from all over the world. Its…