HS-LS2-7

Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.

  1. Environment

    Recycling a climate-warming gas could make ‘greener’ farmed fish

    Instead of warming the climate, methane gas can be collected to help farmers. Along the way, it may also save some fish.

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  2. Animals

    Rewilding returns lost species to strengthen ecosystems

    Restoring the missing species can help undo human-caused problems by aiding forests, slowing climate change and reducing wildfires.

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  3. Life

    Explainer: What is an invasive species?

    These foreign organisms hitchhike, spread widely and stir up trouble in native ecosystems.

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  4. Animals

    As the tropics warm, some birds are shrinking

    Migratory birds are getting smaller as temperatures climb, studies had showed. New evidence shows dozens of tropical, nonmigratory species are, too.

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  5. Environment

    A new way to make plastics could keep them from littering the seas

    Borrowing from genetics, scientists are creating plastics that will degrade. They can even choose how quickly these materials break down.

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  6. Environment

    Cheatgrass thrives on the well-lit urban night scene

    Middle-grade campers team up with ecologists at Denver University to show that streetlights boost the growth of a reviled invasive species.

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  7. Tech

    Synthetic trees could tap underground water in arid areas

    They also could also help coastal residents mine fresh water from salty sources.

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  8. Earth

    Stores and malls buy into ponds and rain gardens for flood control

    An extra bonus: These rainy-day ponds clean up that dirty water running off parking lots.

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  9. Environment

    ‘Zombie’ wildfires can reemerge after wintering underground

    Climate change may make these not-quite-dead blazes more common. Scientists are learning to predict where a zombie might emerge.

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  10. Earth

    ‘Tree farts’ make up about a fifth of greenhouse gases from ghost forests

    Heat-trapping gases from dead trees play an important role in the environmental impact of “ghost” forests.

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  11. Environment

    Pond scum can release a paralyzing pollutant into the air

    New study finds blooms of blue-green algae can seed the air with a poisonous pollutant.

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  12. Animals

    A common antibiotic might save some sick corals

    The antibiotic amoxicillin stopped tissue death in corals for at least 11 months after treatment.

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