Sustainability & Climate Change
Food production needs are expected to roughly double over the next 35 years as the world population grows and people in under developed countries become more affluent and demand more calories. Healthy ecosystems are vital to the survival of all organisms. How can we grow crops without harming the environment? How can we balance technology and global food security? What is the right balance of organic and conventional farming? What role can genetics and biotechnology play without compromising the needs of tomorrow?
Below is the complete archive of related articles sorted by date.
Viewpoint: Latest attack on renewable energy and farmers, new USDA rules could put solar grants out of reach for small producers
Farmers hoping to tap the US Department of Agriculture's Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) must now build their solar ...
Viewpoint: ‘Bureaucratic and economic obstacles’ to agricultural biotechnology: Europe creeps into the 21st century, but blocks remain
Genetically modified crops won’t single-handedly rescue harvests from worsening droughts, but Europe’s rulebook is making sure they barely get the ...
Rural revival or corporate windfall? Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill tax law opens the door to big breaks for data centers—but tech giants aren’t cashing in
Starting January 1, data centers built on rural land could qualify for a generous set of federal tax breaks, courtesy ...
Is organic farming really more sustainable? 100 recent studies say ‘no’
Organic produce may wear a green halo, but it doesn’t earn a clear climate advantage. Organic and conventional farming come ...
Jump-starting global warming: Rising temperatures are driving up emissions from wildfires, fermenting wetlands, and melting permafrost
As the planet heats up, tundras are thawing, wetlands are fermenting, and forests are succumbing to larger and more frequent ...
Should fossil fuel companies be shielded from lawsuits over climate change damage? The Supreme Court takes up the question
Climate change is causing billions of dollars’ worth of damage every year from floods, fires, droughts and other consequences of ...
No, GMO foods do not “damage genes, natural disposition and hormones, or decrease physical health and intelligence”
Social media posts spreading in Indonesia claim that genetically modified food can rewrite your DNA, and the science says otherwise ...
The kooky logic behind the raft of spurious cancer claims from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health
It would shock you to know that Costco, according to a new Harvard School of Public Health methodology, caused 120,687 ...
Here are all the ways CRISPR gene editing is transforming Africa’s staple crops—and there’s a lot more innovation to come
CRISPR gene editing is already reshaping Africa’s most important food crops, from disease-resistant bananas to less toxic cassava, and a ...
Energy-sucking data centers are unpopular across the political spectrum. Could moving them into space change the equation?
Google plans to launch a satellite on Oct. 1 that can run its artificial intelligence technologies in orbit, an early ...
Anti-GMO activists in Pakistan rev up their campaign of dire warnings
Pakistan is weighing whether to commercialize genetically modified maize, and critics of the technology are sounding the alarm, warning of ...
Viewpoint: Is corporate embrace of regenerative agriculture greenwashing?
Major food companies are racing to tout “regenerative agriculture,” but the term has no legal definition — and that vagueness ...
How much of a problem is AI’s water use?
This story was originally published by Knowable Magazine. “Protect our water,” “Water for people not AI,” “Don’t mess with our ...
Viewpoint: How to ecologically damage America’s forests: Ban glyphosate
A recent Mother Jones’ investigation ran under the headline “We Are Bombarding America’s Forests With Roundup.” The authors claim that ...
From Malaysia to the world: A pioneering science communicator reimagines global science communication for a digital age
By 2024, I was exhausted. For more than a decade, I had carried The Petri Dish through the realities of ...
Viewpoint: Dubious environmental fears: Why the AI buildout is critical to America’s ecological future
Opposition to artificial intelligence has intensified over the past year. A majority of Americans worry that AI will kill jobs, ...
Viewpoint: What’s the likely impact when the EPA loosens rules limiting methane pollution from oil and gas wells?
This story was originally published by ProPublica. The Trump administration is poised to loosen environmental restrictions on oil and gas wells ...
A meaty problem: How to make cell-grown protein taste like steak, chicken, and seafood
Lab-grown, or cultivated, meat options are already a reality in select restaurants worldwide. For example, the omakase restaurant Robin in ...
CRISPR fine-tuning unlocks vitamin C-rich potatoes without yield loss
Potato is a central pillar of global food security, yet its highly heterozygous, tetraploid genome has long frustrated conventional breeding ...
Trump EPA rolls back power-plant climate rules—and moves to block future carbon limits
The Trump administration's Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to repeal the rules that limit greenhouse gas emissions from coal- and ...
‘Glyphosate is not carcinogenic’: Independent EU chemical oversight agency reaffirms—for the 3rd time in 9 years—that the herbicide is safe-as-used
The European Chemicals Agency's Risk Assessment Committee (RAC) has reaffirmed, for the third time in nine years, that glyphosate does ...
Bayer urges court to approve $7.25 billion Monsanto Roundup settlement that could limit its future liabilities
Bayer is asking a Missouri court to grant final approval to a $7.25 billion settlement covering roughly 65,000 lawsuits claiming ...
The GMO-seed sovereignty debate comes to Nigeria
Across Nigerian farms, market stalls and WhatsApp groups, one word is triggering fear, hope and fury in equal measure: Genetically ...
From smart packaging to bio-based coatings, scientists find new ways to reduce food contamination
In today’s world, food hunger and insecurity are not due to lack of food. Right now, the world produces enough ...
How climate change could impact food safety
Climate change isn't just fueling stronger storms and longer droughts — it's also making the food on your plate riskier, ...
Viewpoint: If Trump has his way, nitrogen oxide-polluting AI data centers will be exempt from air pollution rules
The Trump administration is moving to end public notification of air pollution from AI data centers, as Guardian reporter Tom ...
Viewpoint: Realpolitik environmentalism is on the horizon
When was the last time you heard someone call themselves an “environmentalist”? A decade ago, self-professed environmentalists would proudly claim ...
