News

The Amazon rain forest, popularly known as the lungs of the planet, inhales carbon dioxide as it exudes oxygen. Plants use carbon dioxide from the air to grow parts that eventually fall to the ground to decompose or get washed away by the region’s plentiful rainfall.

The eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula, a finger of the southern polar continent that juts toward South America, has experienced summer warming of perhaps a half-degree per decade – a greater rate than possibly anywhere else on Earth – in the last 50 years, and that warming is largely attributed to human causes.

One cubic yard of concrete is poured for every person in the world each year, according to The Concrete Producer blog. However, until now, there has been little evaluation of its environmental effects.

The UW Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF) is shaping national policy through its recent development of new testing standards for concrete that could lead to a greener building sector.

Industry professionals and UW faculty developed these standards, known as product category rules, to compare the carbon footprints of different types of concrete.

To try to save the environment, UW conservation scientists made use of one key ingredient in their research: poop.

By examining whale excrement found between Washington state mainland and San Juan Islands, researchers in UW’s Center for Conservation Biology (CCB) have found that the population of killer whales living in the area are declining. To find the fecal matter, researchers use specially trained dogs from Conservation Canine (CK9), the CCB’s program that trains dogs to find animal scat for research samples.

UW outcompetes PAC-12 schools

In the grand champion category comparing paper, glass and can recycling with the amount of garbage thrown away, the UW outcompeted all the PAC-12 schools entered in this year’s Recyclmania, an eight-week contest when universities and colleges are ranked on how much recycling, food waste and trash they collect.

Information streams live from sensors two miles below the ocean surface, gathering data for years at a time and providing a video stream accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.

After making do with battery-powered sensors that would need to be retrieved before their data could be accessed, engineers at the UW’s Applied Physics Laboratory are working to make these groundbreaking live-sensor oceanography tools a reality through the world’s largest underwater observatory off the Washington coast.

The king tides that swamped Alki last winter might be a harbinger of the effects of climate change on Seattle. Diminished snowpack in the Cascades could mean less drinking water and less cheap hydroelectricity. A 3-meter rise in sea level could swamp the Duwamish Waterway, the working port, Sodo and its industrial lands.

While steps Seattle takes to reduce emissions would have little effect on the global climate and those potential threats, they could demonstrate what one city can do to dramatically reduce its own sources of greenhouse gases, said City Councilmember Mike O’Brien.

At the end of a long day, it can be more convenient to order your groceries online while sitting on the living room couch instead of making a late-night run to the store. New research shows it’s also much more environmentally friendly to leave the car parked and opt for groceries delivered to your doorstep.

I am 57 and right in the middle of the baby boom generation. One of the most memorable moments of my childhood took place in 1969, when we landed a man on the moon. While this was a marvelous, celebratory moment in terms of scientific advancement, the way it was cast sums up my generation's previous view of the environment. Back then, it was about conquering nature; not exploring it, or living with it. Boomers -- and their parents -- thought humans were at the center of the universe; and we believed that we could be in charge and in control of the world, or worlds, around us.