Cookies help us run our site more efficiently.

By clicking “Accept”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. View our Privacy Policy for more information or to customize your cookie preferences.

Accept Deny

GoGreenNation News

Learn more about the issues presented in our films
Show Filters

Foraging Revival: How Wild Food Enthusiasts Are Reconnecting With Nature

Humans first began foraging for food some 12,000 years ago, long before they developed agricultural tools that overshadowed the ancient act that helped sustain early humans

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Standing barefoot in a grassy patch of dandelions, Iris Phoebe Weaver excitedly begins listing the many ways the modest plant can be used medicinally and in cooking.“I just picked a bunch of dandelion flowers yesterday and threw them in vodka with some orange peel and some sugar, and that’s my dandelion aperitif,” Weaver said. “That will make a lovely mixed drink at some point.”A longtime herbalist and foraging instructor in Massachusetts, Weaver takes people on nature walks that transform their relationships with their surroundings. Lately, she's been encouraged by the uptick in interest in foraging, a trend she sees as benefiting the environment, community and people.“There is just an amazing amount of food that is around us,” Weaver said. “There is so much abundance that we don’t even understand.”Humans have been foraging long before they developed the agricultural tools some 12,000 years ago that quickly overshadowed the ancient act that helped sustain early humans. Yet foraging enthusiasts say the search for wild mushrooms, edible plants, shellfish and seaweed has grown more popular in recent years as people tout their rare finds. Others share knowledge on social media, and experienced foragers offer training to novices on safe and sustainable practices.The renewed interest ranges from those wanting to be budget-conscious — foraging is free after all — to those wanting to be more mindful of their environmental footprint. Some even use foraging as a creative outlet, using mushrooms they find to create spore prints and other art. The popularity is also helped by the hobby's accessibility. Foragers can look for wild food everywhere, from urban landscapes to abandoned farmlands to forests — they just need permission from a private landowner or to secure the right permit from a state or federal park. Some advocates have even launched a map highlighting where people can pick fruits and vegetables for free.Gina Buelow, a natural resources field specialist with the Iowa University Extension Program, says the university has had a backlog of folks eager to learn more about foraging mushrooms for the past two years. Buelow runs presentations and field guide days throughout the state, regularly meeting the attendance cap of 30 in both rural and urban counties.“Typically, I would get usually older women for a master gardener or pollinator garden class. That audience still shows up to these mushrooms programs, but they bring their husbands. And a lot of people between the ages of 20 and 30 years old are really interested in this topic, as well,” she said.Some creative chefs are also sparking interest in foraging as they expose patrons to exotic and surprisingly tasty ingredients found locally.“Foraging is an ancient concept,” said Evan Mallet, chef and owner of the Black Trumpet Bistro in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, a popular historic New England destination. “Our culture has moved far away from foraging and is fortunately coming back into it now.”Mallet opened the restaurant nearly 20 years ago and uses foods foraged from around Portsmouth. He said he hopes more people will continue to learn about foraging, and encouraged those worried about picking something poisonous to find a mentor.“I think the dangers of foraging are baked into most people’s brains and souls,” he said. “We as an animal know that there are certain things that when they smell a certain way or look a certain way, they can be encoded with a message that we shouldn’t eat those things.”Mallet named his restaurant after the wild foraged mushroom as a reminder. Over the years, he's incorporated Black Trumpet mushrooms into dozens of dishes throughout the menu — even ice cream. Other menu items have included foraged sea kelp in lobster tamales, as well as using Ulva lactuca, a type of sea lettuce, in salads.“It’s nothing that I necessarily seek out, but I kind of love it when it’s on a menu,” said M.J. Blanchette, a longtime patron of Black Trumpet, speaking to the foraged dishes available at Black Trumpet and other restaurants.She recently ordered the meatballs with foraged sweet fern from Mallet's restaurant, a feature she says elevated both the taste and experience of consuming the dish. “I think it’s really cool and I think it’s also something that’s not only foraged, but also tends to be local, and I like that a lot,” she said.Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Food
Nature
Culture

This map shows how air pollution travels to your neighborhood

If you search for your city on a new map and zoom in, you can see pollution drifting from factories, power plants, and ports into your neighborhood. The map—a first-of-its-kind air quality tool from Climate TRACE, a nonprofit coalition cofounded by former Vice President Al Gore—shows how pollution moves through cities. The new interactive tool, launching September 24, is powered by a sophisticated model that tracks local air pollution and weather data and feeds the map. It shows PM 2.5 pollution (responsible for nearly 9 million deaths each year globally) in more than 2,500 cities. Orange dots indicate sources of pollution, with a stream of smaller dots showing how it moves over the city, shifting course with the wind. Right now, the map presents snapshots of average and bad air days in each city. But it will later offer data in near real time. [Image: Climate TRACE] “Eventually, we will have it on a daily basis, so that if you have a child with asthma or if you have family members with lung and heart conditions that make them sensitive to air pollution, you can go to your favorite weather app and see exactly what the pollution flows have been through your neighborhood that particular day,” Gore says. Health researchers can use the data to see how pollution is linked to disease at the neighborhood level. Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, for example, has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world. One community in the area, called Reserve, has a cancer rate 50 times higher than the U.S. average. [Image: Climate TRACE] The tool’s visualizations can aid policymakers in making the case for more state regulation and help the worst-polluting sites transition to cleaner tech. (As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to stop collecting some emissions data, Climate TRACE, which stands for “tracking real-time atmospheric carbon emissions,” can also help partially fill that data gap.) Companies can use its data to identify and replace the worst polluters in their supply chains. Because the same sources are responsible for both climate emissions and air pollution, highlighting the health impacts also helps build support for climate action. “Connecting those two streams of pollution, and tracing them back to the same combustion process, makes it easier to understand exactly why we have to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels,” says Gore. [Image: Climate TRACE] The coalition launched in 2020 to track greenhouse gas emissions using satellite images, other data, and machine learning to estimate the pollution emitted by industrial sites. Last year, the group added “co-pollutants” like particulate matter and sulfur dioxide to its database, using data on the size and type of each polluting site. The new tool can help make the issue of air pollution seem more immediate and personal. “My experience with everyone I’ve showed this to is that it feels abstract until they see themselves in the story,” says Gavin McCormick, cofounder of Climate TRACE. “You can show people on a map where their house is, they can show you where their kid goes to school, and you can see the pollution. I think that’s just kind of making people realize this is happening to them.”

If you search for your city on a new map and zoom in, you can see pollution drifting from factories, power plants, and ports into your neighborhood. The map—a first-of-its-kind air quality tool from Climate TRACE, a nonprofit coalition cofounded by former Vice President Al Gore—shows how pollution moves through cities. The new interactive tool, launching September 24, is powered by a sophisticated model that tracks local air pollution and weather data and feeds the map. It shows PM 2.5 pollution (responsible for nearly 9 million deaths each year globally) in more than 2,500 cities. Orange dots indicate sources of pollution, with a stream of smaller dots showing how it moves over the city, shifting course with the wind. Right now, the map presents snapshots of average and bad air days in each city. But it will later offer data in near real time. [Image: Climate TRACE] “Eventually, we will have it on a daily basis, so that if you have a child with asthma or if you have family members with lung and heart conditions that make them sensitive to air pollution, you can go to your favorite weather app and see exactly what the pollution flows have been through your neighborhood that particular day,” Gore says. Health researchers can use the data to see how pollution is linked to disease at the neighborhood level. Louisiana’s Cancer Alley, for example, has one of the highest levels of air pollution in the world. One community in the area, called Reserve, has a cancer rate 50 times higher than the U.S. average. [Image: Climate TRACE] The tool’s visualizations can aid policymakers in making the case for more state regulation and help the worst-polluting sites transition to cleaner tech. (As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to stop collecting some emissions data, Climate TRACE, which stands for “tracking real-time atmospheric carbon emissions,” can also help partially fill that data gap.) Companies can use its data to identify and replace the worst polluters in their supply chains. Because the same sources are responsible for both climate emissions and air pollution, highlighting the health impacts also helps build support for climate action. “Connecting those two streams of pollution, and tracing them back to the same combustion process, makes it easier to understand exactly why we have to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels,” says Gore. [Image: Climate TRACE] The coalition launched in 2020 to track greenhouse gas emissions using satellite images, other data, and machine learning to estimate the pollution emitted by industrial sites. Last year, the group added “co-pollutants” like particulate matter and sulfur dioxide to its database, using data on the size and type of each polluting site. The new tool can help make the issue of air pollution seem more immediate and personal. “My experience with everyone I’ve showed this to is that it feels abstract until they see themselves in the story,” says Gavin McCormick, cofounder of Climate TRACE. “You can show people on a map where their house is, they can show you where their kid goes to school, and you can see the pollution. I think that’s just kind of making people realize this is happening to them.”

Pollution
Climate
Health

Al Gore's Satellite and AI System Is Now Tracking Sources of Deadly Soot Pollution

Former Vice President Al Gore has announced an expansion of Climate TRACE to track soot pollution using satellite technology and artificial intelligence

NEW YORK (AP) — Soon people will be able to use satellite technology and artificial intelligence to track dangerous soot pollution in their neighborhoods — and where it comes from — in a way not so different from monitoring approaching storms under plans by a nonprofit coalition led by former Vice President Al Gore.Gore, who started Climate TRACE, which uses satellites to monitor the location of heat-trapping methane sources, on Wednesday expanded his system to track the source and plume of pollution from tiny particles, often referred to as soot, on a neighborhood basis for 2,500 cities across the world. Particle pollution kills millions of people worldwide each year — and tens of thousands in the United States — according to scientific studies and reports.Gore's coalition uses 300 satellites, 30,000 ground-tracking sensors and artificial intelligence to track 137,095 sources of particle pollution, with 3,937 of them categorized as “super emitters” for how much they spew. Users can look at long-term trends, but in about a year Gore hopes these can become available daily so they can be incorporated into weather apps, like allergy reports.It’s not just seeing the pollutants. The website shows who is spewing them.“It’s difficult, before AI, for people to really see precisely where this conventional air pollution is coming from,” Gore said. “When it’s over in their homes and in their neighborhoods and when people have a very clear idea of this, then I think they’re empowered with the truth of their situation. My faith tradition has always taught me you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”Unlike methane, soot pollution isn't technically a climate issue because it doesn't cause the world to warm, but it does come from the same process: fossil fuel combustion.“It's the same combustion process of the same fuels that produce both the greenhouse gas pollution and the particulate pollution that kills almost 9 million people every single year,'' Gore said in a video interview Monday. "I’ll give you an example. I recently spent a week in Cancer Alley, the stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where the U.S. petrochemical industry is based. That’s a 65-mile (105-kilometer) stretch, you know, and on either side of the river we did an analysis with the Climate TRACE data. If Cancer Alley were a nation, its per capita global warming pollution emissions would rank fourth in the world, behind Turkmenistan.”Gore's firm found Karachi, Pakistan, had the most people exposed to soot pollution, followed by Guangzhou, China, Seoul, South Korea, New York City and Dhaka, Bangladesh.The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Pollution
Climate
Technology

Bees, Once Buzzing in Honey-Producing Basra, Hit by Iraq's Water Crisis

By Mohammed AttiBASRA, Iraq (Reuters) -Bees once thrived among the date palms along the Shatt al-Arab, where Iraq's mighty Tigris and Euphrates...

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) -Bees once thrived among the date palms along the Shatt al-Arab, where Iraq's mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers meet, but drought has shrivelled the green trees and life in the apiaries that dot the riverbank is under threat.In the historic port city of Basra, beekeepers following centuries-long traditions are struggling to produce honey as the salinity of water in Shatt al-Arab rises, along with extreme heat and persistent droughts that have disturbed the bees' delicate ecosystem."Bees need clean ... water. The lack of this water leads to their death," said Mahmoud Shaker, 61, a professor at Basra University who has his own apiary.BASRA WAS KNOWN FOR ITS HONEYThe banks of the Shatt al-Arab were once a lush jungle where bees would feast, producing high-quality honey that was a good source of income for Iraqi beekeepers in the southern city.But decades of conflict and a changing climate have slowly diminished the greenery, putting the bee population at risk. Less than a quarter of the palm trees on the riverbanks of Shatt al-Arab have survived, with fewer than 3 million trees now, from a peak of nearly 16 million.There were more than 4,000 bee hives in at least 263 apiaries around the city, the assistant director of the Basra office in the agriculture ministry, Dr. Mohammed Mahdi Muzaal Al-Diraoui, told Reuters. But due to conflict and the harsh environmental conditions, around 150 apiaries have been damaged and at least 2,000 hives lost, he said."Environmental conditions and salt water have harmed the bees, causing significant losses. Some beekeepers have completely lost their apiaries," Al-Diraoui said.As a result, honey production in the area is expected to decline by up to 50% this season compared to the previous year, Al-Diraoui said.At its peak, honey production from the Basra region was around 30 tons a year, he said, but has been declining since 2007-2008, falling sharply to 12 tons in the past five years, with production this season expected to reach just six tons.DECADES OF WAR, AND NOW A WATER CRISISIraq has endured decades of warfare - from war with Iran in the 1980s, to the Gulf War of the early 1990s, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion followed by insurgent violence and rise and fall of the Islamic State group. Its latest challenge, however, is a water shortage that is putting its whole ecology at risk.Water security has become a pressing issue in the oil-rich nation as levels in Euphrates and Tigris have declined sharply, worsened by upstream dams, mostly in Turkey. For Shatt al-Arab that meant a surge of seawater from the Arabian Gulf into the waterway, raising salinity to unprecedented levels.Its riverbanks, once lined with groves rich in nectar and flowers, have been devastated as salinity levels soared, while bees also struggle with extreme heat, with summer temperatures in Basra reaching 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), Shaker said.As the salinity of Shatt al-Arab's water rises, the bee population remains at risk, and some areas on the riverbanks of southern Basra have already stopped production, Al-Diraoui said."I expect that if the water crisis continues at this rate over the next year, especially if salt water reaches areas in northern Basra, honey production will come to a complete halt."(Reporting by Mohammed Atti in Basra, Writing by Nayera AbdallahEditing by Ros Russell)Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

Crisis
Water
Climate

Could These ‘Deepfake’ Whales Aid Conservation Efforts?

It’s a hyper-modern problem on social media: A video or image of an animal doing something seemingly unbelievable in the wild pops up on your feed, only for you to realize it is, in fact, unbelievable. That’s because many of these images and videos—from wolves befriending house cats to brown bears jumping on a trampoline—are […]

Ecologists are increasingly tapping into artificial intelligence to help aid conservation, but many are grappling with how to use these energy-hungry systems without fueling future environmental problems.By Kiley PriceIt’s a hyper-modern problem on social media: A video or image of an animal doing something seemingly unbelievable in the wild pops up on your feed, only for you to realize it is, in fact, unbelievable. That’s because many of these images and videos—from wolves befriending house cats to brown bears jumping on a trampoline—are fabricated using artificial intelligence.

Animals
Conservation

States get a blueprint to speed up heat-pump adoption

States are ramping up efforts to get residents to switch from fossil-fuel-fired heating systems to all-electric heat pumps. Now, they’ve got a big new tool kit to pull from. Last week, the interagency nonprofit Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, or NESCAUM, released an 80-page action plan laying…

Heat pumps are slowly catching on. In the U.S., the units outsold gas furnaces by their biggest-ever margin last year, but their share of the market is still modest. Citing data from the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a trade association, Levin said that in 2021, heat pumps accounted for about 25% of the combined shipments of gas furnaces, heat pumps, and air conditioners, the three largest reported HVAC categories. In 2024, they’d risen to about 32%. “No matter how you look at it, there are still a lot of gas furnaces being sold, there are still a lot of one-way central air-conditioners being sold — all of which could really become heat pumps,” Levin said. Produced in consultation with state agencies, environmental justice organizations, and technical and policy experts, the NESCAUM report lays out a diverse set of more than 50 strategies — both carrots and sticks — covering equity and workforce investments, obligations to reduce carbon, building standards, and utility regulation. A wide range of decision-makers, often in collaboration, can pull these levers — from utility regulators to governor’s offices, state legislatures, and energy, environment, labor, and economic development agencies. Here are six recommendations from the report that stand out. Make heat pumps more accessible to lower-income and renter households. A number of barriers need to be overcome to make heat pumps available to these groups, who often struggle to afford the appliances or lack the autonomy to install them. For example, contractors can’t put heat pumps in homes with hazards like mold, lead, asbestos, and rotten beams, but the process to address these problems can itself cost tens of thousands of dollars. Philadelphia’s Built to Last program coordinates aid to carry out these necessary pre-electrification repairs. On the other side of the country, California is launching a program this fall to install heat pumps in qualifying low- and moderate-income homes — for free. Notably, owners of low-income multifamily buildings can also use the program to upgrade their tenants’ heating systems, but they must agree to keep rent from increasing more than 3% per year for up to 10 years after the project.Set an all-electric standard for new buildings. States have the ability to establish the minimum health, safety, and energy standards that developers must adhere to. New York recently became the first state to require that most new buildings be electric only, making heat pumps the default heating appliances. The rules withstood a legal challenge in July and take effect on Dec. 31.Use building performance standards to encourage heat pumps in existing structures. Such standards require building owners to meet specific annual limits on energy use or carbon emissions and bring them down over time, or face penalties. Several states and cities have already developed these rules. Maryland, for one, stipulates that owners of most edifices 35,000 square feet or greater must report their CO2 emissions starting this year, hit standards by 2030, and fully ditch fossil-fueled appliances by 2040.Leverage emissions rules that improve air quality and protect public health. For example, in 2023, the San Francisco Bay Area air district, home to more than 7 million people, set landmark rules requiring that new residential water and space heaters don’t spew health-harming nitrogen oxides, starting in 2027 and 2029, respectively. Heat pumps fit the bill. Switching to the tech nationwide could avert more than 2,600 premature deaths annually, according to electrification advocacy nonprofit Rewiring America.Push utilities to deliver clean heat.States can require utilities to slash emissions and electrify buildings. For example, in 2021, Colorado adopted a first-in-the-nation clean-heat law doing just that. Lawmakers also mandated that utilities file their implementation plans for approval. In 2024, regulators greenlit a $440 million proposal from Xcel Energy, the state’s largest utility, which included electrifying 200,000 homes with heat pumps by 2030. Maryland is developing a similar standard.Reform electricity rates so that they incentivize zero-emissions heating. Households with heat pumps tend to use more electricity than other customers, which means they pay disproportionately for fixed costs to maintain the grid on their energy bills. Utilities can correct that imbalance with adjusted rates. For example, Massachusetts has required its three major electric utilities to offer discounted winter electricity rates to households with heat pumps. Elizabeth Mahony, commissioner of the state’s Department of Energy Resources, said she expects the new rates to save heat-pump owners on average $540 per year.NESCAUM’s Levin stressed that the report is ​“a menu — not a recipe.” Each state will need to consider its own goals and constraints to pick the approaches that fit it best, she added. Still, ​“I see [heat-pump electricity] rates as one of the areas that’s most promising,” Levin said. Massachusetts’ reforms ​“are really going to change their customer economics to make it more attractive to switch to a heat pump.” When done right, rate design also avoids the need for states to find new funding. ​“You’re not raising costs on anybody, you’re only reducing costs,” Levin said. At a time when households are seeing energy prices rise faster than inflation, the tactic could have widespread political appeal, she noted. NESCAUM plans to check back in with states and report out on their progress each year, Levin said. ​“The cool thing about our work is that we bring states together to learn from one another,” she added. ​“Part of making this transition happen more rapidly is lifting up the things that are really working well.”

Energy
Health
Water

Almost 1.5m homes could be built on brownfield sites in England, report finds

Exclusive: CPRE study suggests housebuilding targets can be met without encroaching on green belt landAlmost 1.5m new homes could be built on brownfield sites in England to avoid encroaching on green belt and meet the government target for housing growth by the end of this parliament, new figures suggest.But despite the scale of brownfield land available, developers are pushing to build on green land, including increased housebuilding on and adjacent to areas of outstanding natural beauty. Continue reading...

Almost 1.5m new homes could be built on brownfield sites in England to avoid encroaching on green belt and meet the government target for housing growth by the end of this parliament, new figures suggest.But despite the scale of brownfield land available, developers are pushing to build on green land, including increased housebuilding on and adjacent to areas of outstanding natural beauty.More than half of the brownfield areas – 54% – have planning permission already and are considered deliverable under the national planning policy framework guidelines within five years. These provide shovel-ready sites for 790,000 properties – more than half of the government’s 1.5m target.The countryside charity CPRE, which obtained the figures from councils all over England, is calling for the government to enforce its brownfield-first approach in order to fulfil the target of 1.5m new homes by the end of this parliament in the face of increasing development on green land.Roger Mortlock, the chief executive officer of the CPRE, said: “If the government is serious about a brownfield-first approach, it needs more teeth … We know that large developers favour building on our countryside, with more identikit, car-dependent executive homes being needlessly built on our countryside.”Analysis of the 2023 and 2024 brownfield registers kept by local authorities across England reveals the number of sites available has risen by 16% in the 12 months to 2024.There are 30,257 sites available, covering 32,884 hectares (81,223 acres) that local councils have identified as suitable for 1.49m dwellings, the data shows.Brownfield sites are a constantly renewing resource, the CPRE says. They include former retail areas in town centres, abandoned factories and redundant commercial buildings.Across England, from the south-west, through London to the Midlands and the north, this means there are enough brownfield areas to build the 1.5m new homes the government is promising without encroaching on green belt or precious natural landscapes.The data appears to contradict statements made by the prime minister, Keir Starmer, who has claimed it is impossible to build 1.5m new homes on brownfield land. “We must be honest, we cannot build the homes Britain needs without also releasing some land currently classed as green belt,” he said.Developers appear to be exploiting the failure by this government and previous administrations to mandate a brownfield-first approach.Between 2021 and 2022, 46% of development took place on green belt, or green sites, unnecessarily bulldozing nature and ecosystems, the CPRE said. New developments in the countryside were being built all the time, they added.“A new approach to local housing numbers has massively increased the target in many rural areas without any evidence of local need and without the infrastructure to support new communities,” said Mortlock. As well as damaging nature, the developments were not sustainable, he said, as they had no transport or community infrastructure, forcing people into their cars.Brownfield sites are available in the key areas where the government is focusing its housebuilding growth. These include London, where there are enough brownfield sites to build 535,000 homes; the south-east, where there are sufficient areas for 190,814 homes; and the West Midlands, where brownfield sites exist to build 191,004 homes.The CPRE says the government should apply ambitious and enforceable targets for affordable and social homes on shovel-ready brownfield sites.The new figures come as ministers are finalising the new planning and infrastructure bill, which rolls back environmental laws in what the government says is a ripping up of red tape to speed up approvals.Despite some amendments, the bill is still considered a regression of environmental rules by the government’s own environmental watchdog, the Office for Environmental Protection.The Home Builders Federation said: “Not all brownfield land is viable for development, with many sites facing a range of complex challenges. Suitability depends on the land’s ownership, remediation requirements, location, accessibility and attractiveness to potential residents.“Many will be sites that are attractive to retail or other commercial developers who, by not being subject to the taxes and requirements placed on residential developers, can often bid more for land.”The government was approached for comment.

Government
Nature
Sustainable

Strange Mars Rocks Could Hold Clues to Ancient Life

NASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered strange chemical and mineral patterns in Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel formation that may be the strongest hints yet of ancient Martian life. The rocks contain organic carbon, iron, sulfur, and phosphorus arranged in ways eerily similar to microbial processes on Earth. Possible Martian Biosignatures in Jezero Crater A recent study [...]

Rocks in the Bright Angel Formation. NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover acquired this image using its Right Mastcam-Z camera. Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras located high on the rover’s mast. This image was acquired on May 29, 2024 (Sol 1164) at the local mean solar time of 12:40:40. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUNASA’s Perseverance rover has uncovered strange chemical and mineral patterns in Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel formation that may be the strongest hints yet of ancient Martian life. The rocks contain organic carbon, iron, sulfur, and phosphorus arranged in ways eerily similar to microbial processes on Earth. Possible Martian Biosignatures in Jezero Crater A recent study led in part by Texas A&M University geologist Dr. Michael Tice points to chemical clues in Martian rocks that may signal traces of ancient microbial life. The evidence comes from samples analyzed by NASA’s Perseverance rover. An international group of researchers reported their results after examining a section of Jezero Crater called the Bright Angel formation. The name was inspired by places in Grand Canyon National Park and refers to the pale color of the rocks in that region. Bright Angel lies within the Neretva Vallis channel and contains mudstones packed with oxidized iron (rust), phosphorus, sulfur, and most importantly, organic carbon. While organic carbon has been detected on Mars before, often from sources like meteorites, this particular mix of elements could have provided an energy supply for primitive organisms. Perseverance rover reached the Bright Angel site on Mars by navigating through a dune field, bypassing large boulders. The rover is now investigating this area’s unique geological features to understand Mars’ past environmental conditions and support future human exploration. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechStrikingly Different Rocks in Bright Angel Formation “When the rover entered Bright Angel and started measuring the compositions of the local rocks, the team was immediately struck by how different they were from what we had seen before,” said Tice, a geobiologist and astrobiologist in the Department of Geology and Geophysics. “They showed evidence of chemical cycling that organisms on Earth can take advantage of to produce energy. And when we looked even closer, we saw things that are easy to explain with early Martian life but very difficult to explain with only geological processes.” Tice went on to explain that “living things do chemistry that generally occurs in nature anyway given enough time and the right circumstances. To the best of our current knowledge, some of the chemistry that shaped these rocks required either high temperatures or life, and we do not see evidence of high temperatures here. However, these findings require experiments and ultimately laboratory study of the sample here on Earth in order to completely rule out explanations without life.” The team published its findings in Nature. Texas A&M University astrogeologist Dr. Michael Tice. Credit: Texas A&M UniversityAncient Water-Shaped Sediments The Bright Angel formation is composed of sedimentary rocks deposited by water, including mudstones (fine-grained sedimentary rocks made of silt and clay) and layered beds that suggest a dynamic environment of flowing rivers and standing water. Using Perseverance’s suite of instruments, including the SHERLOC and PIXL spectrometers, scientists detected organic molecules and small arrangements of minerals that appear to have formed through “redox reactions,” chemical processes involving the transfer of electrons. On Earth, those processes are often driven by biological activity. Among the most striking features are tiny nodules and “reaction fronts”— nicknamed “poppy seeds” and “leopard spots” by the rover team — enriched in ferrous iron phosphate (likely vivianite) and iron sulfide (likely greigite). These minerals commonly form in low-temperature, water-rich environments and are often associated with microbial metabolisms. “It’s not just the minerals, it’s how they are arranged in these structures that suggests that they formed through the redox cycling of iron and sulfur,” Tice said. “On Earth, things like these sometimes form in sediments where microbes are eating organic matter and ‘breathing’ rust and sulfate. Their presence on Mars raises the question: could similar processes have occurred there?” Organic Carbon in Apollo Temple The SHERLOC instrument detected a Raman spectral feature known as the G-band, a signature of organic carbon, in several Bright Angel rocks. The strongest signals came from a site called “Apollo Temple,” where both vivianite and greigite were most abundant. “This co-location of organic matter and redox-sensitive minerals is very compelling,” said Tice. “It suggests that organic molecules may have played a role in driving the chemical reactions that formed these minerals.” Tice notes it’s important to understand that “organic” does not necessarily mean formed by living things. “It just means having a lot of carbon-carbon bonds,” he explained. “There are other processes that can make those besides life. The kind of organic matter detected here could have been produced by abiotic processes or it could have been produced by living things. If produced by living things, it would have to have been degraded by chemical reactions, radiation or heat to produce the G-band that we observe now.” Life or Geochemistry? Two Competing Scenarios The study outlines two possible scenarios: one in which these reactions occurred abiotically (driven by geochemical processes) and another in which microbial life may have affected the reactions, as it does on Earth. Strikingly, although some features of the nodules and reaction fronts could be produced by abiotic reactions between organic matter and iron, the known geochemical processes that could have produced the features associated with sulfur usually only work at relatively high temperatures. “All the ways we have of examining these rocks on the rover suggest that they were never heated in a way that could produce the leopard spots and poppy seeds,” said Tice. “If that’s the case, we have to seriously consider the possibility that they were made by creatures like bacteria living in the mud in a Martian lake more than three billion years ago.” While the team emphasizes that the evidence is not definitive proof of past life, the findings meet NASA’s criteria for “potential biosignatures” — features that warrant further investigation to determine whether they are biological or abiotic in origin. Rock Sample for Future Return to Earth Perseverance collected a core sample from the Bright Angel formation, named “Sapphire Canyon,” which is now stored in a sealed tube carried by the rover. This sample is among those prioritized for return to Earth in a potential future mission. “Bringing this sample back to Earth would allow us to analyze it with instruments far more sensitive than anything we can send to Mars,” said Tice. “We’ll be able to look at the isotopic composition of the organic matter, the fine-scale mineralogy, and even search for microfossils if they exist. We’d also be able to perform more tests to determine the highest temperatures experienced by these rocks, and whether high temperature geochemical processes might still be the best way to explain the potential biosignatures.” Earth-Mars Parallels in Ancient Microbial Life Tice, who has long studied ancient microbial ecosystems on Earth, said the parallels between Martian and terrestrial processes are striking — with one important difference. “What’s fascinating is how life may have been making use of some of the same processes on Earth and Mars at around the same time,” he said. “We see evidence of microorganisms reacting iron and sulfur with organic matter in the same way in rocks of the same age on Earth, but we’d never be able to see exactly the same features that we see on Mars in the old rocks here. Processing by plate tectonics has heated all our rocks too much to preserve them this way. It’s a special and spectacular thing to be able to see them like this on another planet.” Explore Further: Reference: “Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars” by Joel A. Hurowitz, M. M. Tice, A. C. Allwood, M. L. Cable, K. P. Hand, A. E. Murphy, K. Uckert, J. F. Bell III, T. Bosak, A. P. Broz, E. Clavé, A. Cousin, S. Davidoff, E. Dehouck, K. A. Farley, S. Gupta, S.-E. Hamran, K. Hickman-Lewis, J. R. Johnson, A. J. Jones, M. W. M. Jones, P. S. Jørgensen, L. C. Kah, H. Kalucha, T. V. Kizovski, D. A. Klevang, Y. Liu, F. M. McCubbin, E. L. Moreland, G. Paar, D. A. Paige, A. C. Pascuzzo, M. S. Rice, M. E. Schmidt, K. L. Siebach, S. Siljeström, J. I. Simon, K. M. Stack, A. Steele, N. J. Tosca, A. H. Treiman, S. J. VanBommel, L. A. Wade, B. P. Weiss, R. C. Wiens, K. H. Williford, R. Barnes, P. A. Barr, A. Bechtold, P. Beck, K. Benzerara, S. Bernard, O. Beyssac, R. Bhartia, A. J. Brown, G. Caravaca, E. L. Cardarelli, E. A. Cloutis, A. G. Fairén, D. T. Flannery, T. Fornaro, T. Fouchet, B. Garczynski, F. Goméz, E. M. Hausrath, C. M. Heirwegh, C. D. K. Herd, J. E. Huggett, J. L. Jørgensen, S. W. Lee, A. Y. Li, J. N. Maki, L. Mandon, N. Mangold, J. A. Manrique, J. Martínez-Frías, J. I. Núñez, L. P. O’Neil, B. J. Orenstein, N. Phelan, C. Quantin-Nataf, P. Russell, M. D. Schulte, E. Scheller, S. Sharma, D. L. Shuster, A. Srivastava, B. V. Wogsland and Z. U. Wolf, 10 September 2025, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0 Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

Chemicals
Nature
Water

Green Tea Shows Promise in Fighting Obesity and Diabetes

A plant extract altered muscle metabolism in guinea pigs, improving glucose-related processes. Green tea has long been valued for its medicinal and antioxidant qualities. It has been extensively investigated for its role in metabolic health, particularly in conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Recent research supported by FAPESP (19/10616-5, 21/08498-4 and 23/11295-3) has [...]

Studies in obese mice suggest green tea extract can reduce weight gain, improve glucose regulation, and protect muscle health. Credit: ShutterstockA plant extract altered muscle metabolism in guinea pigs, improving glucose-related processes. Green tea has long been valued for its medicinal and antioxidant qualities. It has been extensively investigated for its role in metabolic health, particularly in conditions such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Recent research supported by FAPESP (19/10616-5, 21/08498-4 and 23/11295-3) has provided new insights into how green tea works and showed that treatment with the beverage lowered body weight and markedly improved glucose sensitivity and insulin resistance in obese mice. These findings highlight its potential use as a supportive strategy in managing obesity in humans. The studies were led by Rosemari Otton from the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Health Sciences at Cruzeiro do Sul University in São Paulo, Brazil. Otton, who has spent more than 15 years researching green tea, explained that her initial interest arose from questioning whether the common belief in its weight-loss benefits was scientifically valid. Her recent findings were published in the journal Cell Biochemistry & Function. Dietary experiments with a Western-style diet To investigate the effects of green tea on obesity, the research team placed mice on a high-calorie diet for four weeks. This diet included both excess fat and what they described as a “cafeteria diet,” designed to replicate typical Western eating habits. “We give them chocolate, filled cookies, dulce de leche, condensed milk… In other words, the same type of food that many people consume on a daily basis,” said Otton. Following this phase, the animals entered a 12-week treatment period. They remained on the high-calorie diet, but some were also given a standardized green tea extract at a dose of 500 mg per kilogram of body weight. The extract was delivered intragastrically (via gavage) to ensure precise dosing. Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Molecular Biology of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Health Sciences at Cruzeiro do Sul University. Credit: Laboratory of Cellular Physiology and Molecular Biology of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Health Sciences at Cruzeiro do Sul University“It’s a method that ensures they all receive the exact dose we want to study. If we put it in water, for example, we’d have no way of knowing how much the animal actually ingested,” says the researcher. For humans, this amount would be equivalent to consuming about 3 grams of green tea per day, or three cups. Importance of standardized extracts However, according to the researcher, not all commercial green tea meets the necessary quality standards. “Ready-made tea bags do not always guarantee the quantity or quality of the compounds. The ideal for consumption would be to use standardized green tea extract, like those found in compounding pharmacies. This is a concentrated way of using the plant, with a guarantee of the presence of flavonoids, which are the health-beneficial compounds present in the green tea plant,” Otton points out. A notable feature of the study was its strict control of room temperature. Throughout the experiment, the animals were housed in a thermoneutral setting (28 °C). By contrast, standard animal facilities typically maintain a temperature of about 22 °C, which for mice constitutes a state of chronic cold. “Excessive cold activates compensatory regulatory mechanisms in the animals’ bodies, causing them to expend more energy to stay warm. This can mask the real effects of any substance,” explains the researcher. “If the animals are in a colder environment, the effect of the tea is enhanced by the activation of energy expenditure due to the cold. But by maintaining thermoneutrality, we were able to see the effects of green tea in a ‘clean’ way, without environmental interference,” she explains. A previous study published in August 2022 in the European Journal of Nutrition found that obese mice treated with green tea experienced a reduction of up to 30% in body weight. “If a person loses 5% to 10% of their body weight, that’s already a lot. So this result in animals is very significant,” says the professor. Gene expression and metabolic improvements Another highlight of the most recent study was the preservation of muscle morphology. Obesity typically causes a reduction in muscle fiber diameter, but green tea prevented this muscle atrophy. “One way to assess muscle function is to look at fiber diameter. If it increases, we have more active muscle components. Green tea managed to maintain this diameter, showing that it protects muscle against the harmful effects of obesity,” Otton explains. In addition to morphological data, the researchers evaluated the expression of genes related to glucose metabolism. Treatment with green tea increased the expression of Insr, Irs1, Glut4, Hk1, and Pi3k – genes that are important for glucose uptake and use in muscles. The activity of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), an enzyme that is essential for glucose metabolism, was also restored. According to Otton, there is evidence indicating that green tea does not affect the weight of lean animals, suggesting that it acts selectively against excess body fat. “It makes obese animals lose weight but keeps lean animals at a balanced weight. This shows that the tea seems to need an environment with excess nutrients to act, which supports the hypothesis that it acts directly on fat cells.” Another aspect investigated by the team was the action of the compounds in isolation. “Green tea is a complex matrix with dozens of bioactive compounds. We’ve tried to separate these compounds and study their effects individually, but the whole extract is always more effective. There’s a synergy between the compounds that we can’t reproduce when they’re isolated,” she says. According to the scientist, one hypothesis explaining the mechanism by which green tea affects obesity involves adiponectin, a protein produced by adipocytes that has anti-inflammatory and metabolic regulation functions. “We conducted a study with adiponectin-knockout mice, meaning they don’t produce it. And in these animals, green tea had no effect. This suggests that adiponectin is a key player in the mechanism of action of the tea,” she comments. Looking toward human applications Despite the encouraging results of the mouse study, Otton points out that it is not yet possible to determine a safe and effective dose of green tea for humans. This is mainly due to the variability of the extracts and the fact that each person behaves differently. “The ideal is chronic consumption, as we see in Asian countries. In Japan, for example, people consume green tea every day, throughout their lives, and obesity rates are low. But this is different from drinking tea for five months and expecting a miraculous weight loss effect,” she ponders. The researcher argues that natural and accessible treatments should gain ground in the fight against obesity, especially as alternatives to expensive medications that often have side effects. “The idea is to have safe, natural, effective, and high-quality compounds. The Camellia sinensis plant offers this. We’re still studying all the compounds involved, but there’s no doubt that green tea, as a plant matrix rich in flavonoids, has important therapeutic potential.” The researcher emphasizes that science always seeks to develop practical solutions. “What we see in animals doesn’t always reproduce in humans. But if we want to make this translation to real life, we need to think about all the details, such as ambient temperature. It’s these precautions that increase the validity of our data. We’re far from having all the answers, but we’re getting closer and closer.” Reference: “Does Green Tea Ameliorate Obesity in Mice Kept at Thermoneutrality by Modulating Skeletal Muscle Metabolism?” by Celso Pereira Batista Sousa-Filho, Marcus Vinicius Aquino Silva, Victória Silva, Kauan Lima, Allanis Valon, Isabela Fiorentino Souza Nascimento, Maria Angélica Spadella and Rosemari Otton, 16 June 2025, Cell Biochemistry and Function.DOI: 10.1002/cbf.70094 Funding: Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

Health
Animals
Food

EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’

September 23, 2025 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last week that the agency will keep in place a Biden-era policy change that enables the agency to make companies pay for the cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are chemicals that can persist in the environment for […] The post EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’ appeared first on Civil Eats.

September 23, 2025 – Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced last week that the agency will keep in place a Biden-era policy change that enables the agency to make companies pay for the cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals.” Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are chemicals that can persist in the environment for centuries, accumulate in the human body, and are associated with a range of health harms. “EPA’s reaffirmation of this rule is a win for environmental justice, giving communities poisoned without their knowledge a long-overdue path to relief,” Melanie Benesh, vice president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said in a statement. In April 2024, Biden’s EPA designated the two forever chemicals associated with the most harm and widespread environmental contamination—perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)—as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, the country’s “Superfund” law. That meant the agency could then prioritize the cleanup of sites contaminated with those chemicals and hold companies responsible for the remediation. Since then, agricultural industry groups, including the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association,  National Pork Producers Council, and American Farm Bureau Federation, have challenged the rule in court, arguing that farmers who spread contaminated fertilizer on their land could be on the hook for the cleanup costs. Last week, a broader coalition of farm groups, among them the National Farmers Union, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and American Farmland Trust, released federal policy recommendations for addressing PFAS contamination on farms. In addition to provisions related to assisting farmers with cleanup and the reduction of future contamination, the groups included a section recommending the EPA further clarify and confirm that farmers will not be held responsible for contamination caused by fertilizers. Zeldin put that issue—referred to as “passive receiver liability”— front and center in the EPA’s Sept. 17 announcement. “When it comes to PFOA and PFOS contamination, holding polluters accountable while providing certainty for passive receivers that did not manufacture or generate those chemicals continues to be an ongoing challenge,” he said. “EPA intends to do what we can based on our existing authority, but we will need new statutory language from Congress to fully address our concerns.” But some experts say those concerns have already been addressed. “The 2024 enforcement discretion policy resolved the situation, clarifying that EPA would focus enforcement only on polluters—not farmers and municipalities that received PFAS chemicals,” said Betsy Southerland, the former director of the EPA’s Office of Science and Technology in the Office of Water, in a statement released by the Environmental Protection Network. Southerland welcomed the announcement that the EPA will keep the designations in place. She also warned it will offer little relief to people worried about forever chemicals in drinking water, because of Zeldin’s earlier decision to roll back limits on four other PFAS. The EPA also recently approved four new pesticides that qualify as PFAS based on an internationally recognized definition the EPA does not use. “Let’s be clear,” Southerland said. “Our drinking water is still at risk because Trump’s EPA is recklessly allowing more toxic chemicals in Americans’ drinking water.” (Link to this post.) The post EPA Will Keep Rule Designating PFAS as ‘Hazardous’ appeared first on Civil Eats.

Chemicals
Agriculture
Health

No Results today.

Our news is updated constantly with the latest environmental stories from around the world. Reset or change your filters to find the most active current topics.

Join us to forge
a sustainable future

Our team is always growing.
Become a partner, volunteer, sponsor, or intern today.
Let us know how you would like to get involved!

CONTACT US

sign up for our mailing list to stay informed on the latest films and environmental headlines.

Subscribers receive a free day pass for streaming Cinema Verde.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.