• Animals

Climate Change and Arctic Drilling Threaten Polar Bears’ Extinction

• Arctic
• climate change
• drilling
• endangered species
• oil and gas
• polar bears
• science

The Trump Administration finally released the results of a long-awaited study on the cumulative impacts of oil and gas development in the Arctic on the endangered polar bear population and, not surprisingly, it was bad news for the bears. 

Why This Matters: The head of an agency should review a major work product before it is released to the public.  But delaying the release of a scientific report for months because it does not square with the administration’s policy viewpoint is another matter altogether.

• Animals
• Ocean

500,000 Sharks May Die to Create COVID Vaccine

• conservation
• COVID-19
• endangered
• science
• shark
• shark fins
• squalene
• vaccine

Shark populations may be in danger as countries race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Conservationists fear that the demand for a cheap and accessible source of squalene, a common vaccine ingredient produced by shark livers, could lead to the killing of 500,000 sharks.

Why This Matters: Sharks are under attack across the globe. Overfishing and habitat loss have left 143 different shark species considered “endangered,” “critically endangered,” “near threatened,” or “vulnerable.”

• Energy

Solar Innovations Offer New Inroads to Renewable Energy

• Department of Energy
• electric road
• electric vehicles
• hydropower
• renewable energy
• science
• solar panels
• solar power
• sustainable

A new study by the Department of Energy provides an interesting new concept for blending solar and hydropower.  The study found that by placing solar panels on reservoirs and feeding the solar power generated into the same substation, both the hydropower and solar power generated could be more inexpensive, more efficient, and more reliable.

Why This Matters:  It may be obvious, but we will need innovations like these to make the transformations needed to have a sustainable and feasible renewable power system. 

• Ocean

Climate Change and the Ocean Century

• #30x30
• climate change
• exploration
• ocean
• ocean governance
• science
• sea level rise

By Monica Medina, Co-Founder and Co-Publisher, Our Daily Planet This op/ed was published in World War Zero Magazine and appears here with its permission. The ocean is our lifeblood on Earth. It covers 71% of the planet, provides us oxygen, regulates our climate and increasingly severe weather events by determining the strength of storms, droughts […]

• Sustainability

Watch This: Sir David Attenborough’s New Documentary and Insta Debut

• #30x30
• biodiversity
• conservation
• nature
• Netflix
• science
• Sir David Attenborough
• wildlife

By Julia Fine, ODP Contributing Writer This week, Sir David Attenborough put on a full-court press for biodiversity — he joined Instagram and he “called for a $500 billion per year global investment in nature,” as Kaelan Deese reported for The Hill. According to Deese, this exhortation for conservation “came during a one-day summit by […]

• Ocean

Study Shows Warming Ocean, Vicious Carbon Cycle

• carbon sink
• food web
• Hurricanes
• ocean
• science
• warming

A new study found that the ocean is showing signs of intensifying stratification, a phenomenon in which the layers of water in the ocean become more distinct and mix less.

Why This Matters: The mixing of ocean layers is crucial to sea life and human life.