The deep seafloor could provide humans with supplies of valuable metals, but opinion is divided as to whether sustainable exploitation is possible and worth the ecological and economic risk.
Earth’s Future
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Removing Carbon from the Ground Up
Massive plantations for storing carbon and growing biofuel won’t achieve the Paris Agreement’s “2-degree guardrail,” but they could help.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Ocean Currents Push Mainland Pollution to Remote Islands
Marine protected areas, set up to conserve marine ecosystems and species, accumulate pollutants swept in from mainland shores by ocean currents.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
A Framework for Decisions on Science and Policy
Human reasoning has helped us become one of the most successful species to populate the planet, but we still struggle with cognitive biases.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Here Comes the Anthropocene
Two recent papers in Earth's Future discuss the addition of a new epoch to the geological timescale.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Which Greenhouse Gas Does the Most Damage to Crops?
Models showed that approximately 93% of crop losses over the rest of the century could be caused by non–carbon dioxide emissions, the most damaging of these being methane.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Perspectives on Climate Tipping Points
If policy makers are to make real progress, we must start meaning the same thing when we use the same words to describe climate change.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Measuring Progress Toward Sustainable Goals
Grouping targets that need to be hit into composite goals may help countries evaluate their progress toward sustainable development targets laid out by the United Nations.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Evaluating the Impact of Maryland's Healthy Air Act
Reducing emissions of short-lived gaseous sulfur pollutants from power plants had an immediate, local benefit, but controlling longer-lasting harmful particulate matter will require regional action.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Eating Less Meat, Wasting Less Food Could Save Water Worldwide
In tandem, two strategies could lower water consumption by 28% and ensure better water supply for more than 600 million people.