Pollution

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

Microbes were used in the cleanup of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

New Understanding of Toxin-Loving Organisms May Help Tackle Pollution

A breakthrough in the understanding of how bacteria break down toxins using vitamin B12 could lead to improved cleanup methods

A mass of insects teems around an outdoor lamp in Brazil.

The Potential Dark Side of Nobel-Winning LEDs: Pest Problems

The white lighting is clean and efficient but also a lot more attractive to flying invertebrates

An endangered green sea turtle in Hawaii that has contracted fibropapillomatosis.

Pollution From Hawaii Is Giving Sea Turtles Gross, Deadly Tumors

Nitrogen runoff gets into the turtles' food and causes tumors on their faces, flippers and organs

Paris has spread along the banks of the Seine since 1900.

Make Cities Explode in Size With These Interactive Maps

From Los Angeles to Lagos, see how megacities have been taking over the planet during the past 100 years

A radioactive forest in Chernobyl.

The Risks of Fire Around Chernobyl

Radioactive forest litter that has accumulated for the past 28 years could fuel massive blazes in the future

New Study: Blame Defective Wells for Fracking Leaks

Fixing shoddy wells could mean making fracking safer for the environment

Detroit's Dumps Are Slowly Being Reclaimed By Nature

Some illegal dumping grounds in Detroit are being repopulated by hardy plants

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Nine Different Households, Surrounded by a Week's Worth Garbage

Photographer Gregg Segal wanted to highlight the problems of waste, pollution and overconsumption

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