By way of agriculture and industry, humans have major influences on the critical zone. Our past and present effects on the landscape, soil, and water will echo for a long time to come.
pollution
Posted inEditors' Vox
Exploring the Widespread Impacts of Ongoing Nitrogen Pollution
The release of reactive nitrogen into the environment is having severe and ongoing ecosystem, economic, and human health impacts. How can we reduce our nitrogen footprint?
Posted inNews
East Africa Invests in Strategies to Manage E-Waste
As Uganda develops its e-waste policy, neighboring Rwanda establishes a broad-based plan involving incentives and high-tech facilities.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Citizen Science Reduces Risks from Combusting Coal-Mine Wastes
A community-based citizen science study on spontaneously combusting coal-mine waste heaps in Myanmar underpins the development of risk management plans to protect individuals and communities.
Posted inScience Updates
Earth Observations Inform Cities’ Operations and Planning
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Chicago, Ill., are using NASA Earth observations to map, monitor, and forecast water and air quality, urban heat island effects, landslide risks, and more.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Exploring the Impacts of Mining on Planetary Health
Papers are invited for a special collection presenting advances in understanding of the impacts of mining on human, ecosystem, and Earth surface environmental health.
Posted inScience Updates
Asia’s Mega Rivers: Common Source, Diverse Fates
How do humans affect the ways that Asia’s mega rivers deliver sediment and dissolved matter to farms, river deltas, and, eventually, the sea? A proposed study would construct an integrated picture.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Fresh Approaches to Protecting Human Health from Pollution
New low-cost monitoring and mapping techniques can identify multiple pollution sources and reduce related human disease and death.
Posted inNews
The Give and Take of Mercury in Glacial Landscapes
As glacial ice melts, toxic mercury is released into the environment. But a new study shows vegetation may be an effective cleanup crew.
Posted inNews
Indigenous Knowledge Puts Industrial Pollution in Perspective
A 3-year project documents how climate change is affecting the sequestration of decades-old mining by-products in Canadian lakes.