Brazil Has Weakened Dozens of Environmental Laws During the Pandemic

Since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, Brazil has approved 57 pieces of legislation that weaken environmental laws, from relaxing forest protections to declassifying the toxicity of dozens of pesticides, according to a new analysis published in the journal Biological Conservation. Almost half of this legislation, 27 bills, was passed during the height of Brazil’s Covid-19 pandemic, from March to September 2020.

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Seaweeds to the rescue, redux

Recently, there has been a great deal of interest and even excitement about how seaweed might be able to help save us from climate change. I appreciate the newfound exuberance for seaweed, and wholeheartedly agree that seaweeds do a lot for society and the planet. A similar awakening to the wonders of seaweed occurred in […]

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Noise Pollution Impacting Marine Animals Worse Than Previously Thought

Anthropogenic noise pollution is plaguing our oceans and stressing marine fauna far more than previously understood, researchers concluded in a new analysis of more than 10,000 academic papers published in the journal Science. Human-generated noise disrupts the behavior, physiology, and reproduction of marine organisms so much that it can lead to an increased risk of mortality.

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One-Third of Farmland in the U.S. Corn Belt Has Lost Its Topsoil

More than a third of farmland in the U.S. Corn Belt — nearly 100 million acres — has completely lost its carbon-rich topsoil due to erosion, according to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The loss of topsoil has reduced corn and soybean yields in the Midwest by 6 percent, resulting in a loss of nearly $3 billion a year for farmers, and increased runoff of sediment and nutrients into nearby waterways, worsening water quality.

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