Pollution

How Air Pollution Makes Floods Worse

A better understanding of how aerosols interact with weather could lead to better flood forecasts, fewer floods

Adidas designed a shoe with bits of ocean garbage and illegal fishing nets. Would you wear it?

Adidas Just Made a Running Shoe Out of Ocean Trash

The apparel company recently released a prototype that incorporates recycled ocean plastic

A screenshot of the new visualization from Pitch Interactive and Google News Lab

Here’s What People Are Asking Google About Climate Change

The visualization reveals what people want to know about the environment

A shuttle astronaut's view of the International Space Station.

To Get Rid of Space Junk, Shoot It Down With Lasers

Proposals to send debris-targeting craft into orbit are piling up, and one mission may soon start test firing from the space station

David Lerner uses a conductivity and temperature meter to test for sewage in water, a method that's more costly and less effective than using tampons.

How Scientists Are Monitoring Water Quality With Tampons

The feminine hygiene products glow under ultra-violet light after absorbing pollutants called optical brighteners

Single-use cigarette lighters, collected by Mandy Barker, represent our transition to a consumerist, throw-away society.

This Artist Transforms Beach Trash Into Stunning, Majestic Images

Mandy Barker didn't have spend too much time on the shores to collect enough debris for her masterpieces

Palazzo Italia

Smog-Eating Buildings Battle Air Pollution

Sunlight triggers chemical reactions in the façades of buildings in Mexico City and Milan to improve air quality

Got Allergies? Air Pollution Could Be to Blame

New research suggests that ozone and nitrogen dioxide can alter allergens, creating more potent immune responses

What’s Causing This Village’s Weird Sleeping Sickness Epidemic?

About a quarter of residents in a small town in Kazakhstan have fallen into a deep sleep for days at a time—and no one knows why

Personal environmental monitors, such as TZOA (shown here), measure air quality and stream that information to users who may otherwise have no idea what they are breathing.

With Wearable Devices That Monitor Air Quality, Scientists Can Crowdsource Pollution Maps

Emerging technology means anyone with a smartphone can become a mobile environmental monitoring station

Smog over Shanghai

China’s Smog Might Be to Blame for the East Coast’s Rough Winter

A NASA visualization shows how particles from East Asia can swirl into Pacific storms—a source of precipitation for the U.S.

Tiny Bits of Plastic May Be Clogging Up Corals

Researchers find that microplastic pollution has become a new threat to the health of ocean reefs

The abandoned city of Machu Picchu is one legacy of the Spanish conquest of the Incas. Traces of air pollution in a Peruvian ice cap are another.

Spanish Conquest of the Incas Caused Air Pollution to Spike

A sample of Peruvian ice has revealed a surge in pollution linked to mining that wasn't exceeded until the Industrial Revolution

Pollutants Are Making Polar Bears' Penis Bones More Likely to Break

An industrial chemical contaminating the Arctic is further threatening a species already facing dire challenges

Pollution Is Turning the Taj Mahal Brown

Workers must periodically cover the Taj Mahal in clay to remove the pollutants stuck to its marble walls

Plastic trash collected from the world's oceans.

The Ocean Contains Over Five Trillion Pieces of Plastic Weighing More than 250,000 Tons

These frightening figures represent the most robust estimate of marine plastic pollution calculated to date

A Worm’s Gut Could Help Dispose of Plastic Trash

Microbes found in the guts of waxworms like to feast on polyethylene

India Once Released 25,000 Flesh-Eating Turtles Into the Ganges

A plan to clean up corpses failed due to lack of planning

A new, zero-power screening method might make testing for lead and other pollutants easier than ever.

Drop This Capsule Into a Stream and It Will Screen For Pollution

Researchers have developed a sensor (no batteries required) that creates a barcode indicating the amount of pollutants and their whereabouts in water

Why Charging for Plastic Bags Makes People Give Them Up

It's all about setting up psychological tripping blocks

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