Tag: environment

The aluminium in your old car should be recycled into a new car, not something else

OPINION: Unless we acquire greater knowledge about what happens at the atomic and molecular scale during materials recycling, progress towards a truly circular economy will grind to a halt.

Heading into a climate that humanity has never experienced before

Temperatures are still exceptionally high in the world's oceans after several months with record heat levels globally.

The secret lives of slugs: Where do they hide and why do the come out after rain?

A wet summer is not necessarily the best for the much detested Spanish slugs.

Much of the ski tourism in Europe could disappear

For the first time, climate researchers have calculated the effect of climate change on snow in all of Europe's major ski slopes.

Even a limited nuclear war could cause billions to die of starvation

Soot in the atmosphere will cool the climate dramatically. The resulting failure in food production and trade will cause many people to starve, researchers say.

Shrimp are extinct in several areas

Shrimp have been eradicated in several areas outside of Southern Norway, in the North Sea, and off the coast of Great Britain, according to Norwegian and Swedish researchers.

Plastic waste from Norwegian hospitals could fill 100 football pitches every year, according to report

A good part of this plastic waste could be avoided, the report shows.

What do mussels do when subjected to warmer water?

Shelby Clarke picks up a cluster of mussels from a tank. She is measuring mussel death rates, she explains. Scientists are investigating how mussels will react to future heat waves.

What can we learn from a Swedish fashion brand to innovate for a sustainable future?

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: How can we ensure that innovation leads us to a better future and not a dystopian one?

Heatwaves in the ocean alarm climate researchers

Strong temperature spikes in the ocean and massive loss of sea ice in Antarctica concern scientists. Will the climate change faster than anticipated?

Will we be able to pick blueberries in the lowlands in the future?

Blueberries are being monitored year by year. Researchers in several countries are observing how a warmer climate affects the berries.

Parcel lockers can make shopping more environmentally friendly

Researchers believe that encouraging us to pick up packages from lockers instead of having them delivered to our doorstep can significantly reduce environmental emissions.

Only 5 per cent of the ocean has been explored

“I am certain that there is life in every drop,” a researcher says.

June was the fourth warmest June month recorded in Norway since 1900

June was the fourth warmest June month recorded in Norway in a measurement series dating back to 1900.

You don't have to be a child to be fascinated by dandelions

The flower that has conquered the whole world has many amazing properties, according to an expert on weeds.

Researcher warns of explosives in nature

Ammunition left in nature poses an increasingly greater threat to social security, according to a doctoral thesis.

A new overview provides an even more accurate picture of polar sea ice in the past 30 years

The new information makes it possible to see what has happened to sea ice locally along the coasts of Antarctica and Greenland.

Here's how you can make air travel a little better for the climate

Is it not an option to cut out air travel this year? Then there are a few things you can do to reduce emissions, according to a researcher.

Research project halted after minke whale in Lofoten died: “The worst thing that could happen”

A minke whale died after getting stuck in a part of a research facility in Lofoten during the night of June 3rd. The research project has now been temporarily halted.

Decline in the number of wolves in Scandinavia

According to new estimates, there are 510 wolves in Scandinavia. This represents a small decrease from last year.

Tick repellent can cause learning difficulties in bumblebees

According to new research, a type of tick repellent for pets appears to harm both bumblebees and other animals. The EU is considering a ban on the substance.

Norwegian Armed Forces: A lot more ammunition than previously thought has been dumped in Norway's largest lake – missiles are tightly packed

The Norwegian Defense Research Institute has discovered significantly larger amounts of dumped ammunition in lake Mjøsa than previously thought. An area at the bottom of the lake is covered with around a thousand missiles.

171 trillion pieces of plastic are floating around in our oceans

In 2005, there were only 16 trillion.

Norwegian and Swedish researchers completely disagree about pike

Is pike a useful or harmful species? A new study is sounding the alarm that there are too few predatory fish in the Baltic Sea.

Study: Risk of giving birth to small babies increases when the mother lives farther from green spaces

Research shows that a mother's access to green areas — such as a garden, park or footpath — during pregnancy can be linked to a healthy birth weight in children.

Nuclear power is a friend of nature and the environment

OPINION: Based on our recent study of 870 power plants worldwide, nuclear energy is a clear winner in protecting ecosystems, while bioenergy is an indisputable loser.

These small bacteria eat huge amounts of methane. How will they respond to climate change?

When the bacteria are thriving, they eat less.

Half of the world's glaciers may be gone by 2100

Even if the 1.5°C target in the Paris Agreement is reached, half of the world's glaciers could be history by the end of the century, new research shows.

For a long time people thought fossils were animals and dragons drowned in Noah’s flood. Then scientists discovered the Ice Age

In a new book, Reidar Müller describes the history of the climate and the people who pieced it together.

Will the geologists of the future see that something dramatic happened on Earth starting in 1950?

Scientists are considering whether we are entering a new epoch in the Earth's history: the Anthropocene — the age of humans.

People don't want plastic around their food. Here’s how researchers can solve this problem.

Several approaches are being studied. Fish scales can be made into plastic, or we can go back to paper and cardboard.

Animal populations saw average declines of 69 per cent, but what does that actually mean?

The figure from the new WWF report can easily be misinterpreted.

Is there any hope of reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change?

OPINION: Believing that we can achieve the Paris Agreement is not naïve, idealistic, or utopian, according to professor Karen O'Brien.

What’s happening with the ‘doomsday glacier’ in Antarctica?

The Thwaites Glacier is a wild card when it comes to sea level rise, researchers say. A new study describes the glacier’s movements in the past.

When does autumn actually begin?

If you ask a meteorologist, autumn sets in when the average temperature drops below 10 degrees Celsius.

These were the first plants to appear in northern Norway after the last ice age

A large DNA study tells us how nature reacted when the climate changed. The knowledge gained will be used to create better models of what could happen in the future.

Thin ozone layer is recovering

The ozone layer in the Northern Hemisphere will be back to the 1980 level sometime in the 2030s, new measurements show.

Record numbers of Norwegian sea eagles are exported to Europe

Norwegian authorities exported a record number of white-tailed sea eagle chicks this summer. They are hatching new, viable populations in Ireland, Spain and Scotland.

A Viking queen was buried with a bucket of these wild apples. Now researchers worry that their special genetic makeup will disappear

Most people who have tasted crab apples think they are inedible, but researchers still think they are important.

Cars pollute much less than before

Emissions of the toxic gases NOx from local traffic in Norway has decreased by as much as 53 per cent from 1990 to 2020.

Here’s how to make old houses climate-friendly

Workers hoisted new walls over the old ones, and saved both money and the climate. Now the research project will show more people how to renovate their homes in a climate-friendly way.

Hit them where it hurts: Producers of fast fashion should pay the most

OPINION: How best to deal with the negative environmental impact of the clothing industry? The writers behind this opinion suggest a system in which those who sell large volumes of clothes that don't last pay the most.

Farmed salmon need zinc to avoid getting sick. But zinc in the ocean harms the environment

Either farmed fish health or the environment suffers.

Your clothes cause water pollution — but now both the water and the pollutants can be reused

The clothing industry uses and pollutes large amounts of water. Now water from textile manufacturers will be treated, cleaned and reused.

This is how climate change is impacting our nature right now

“This is a very strong signal to take better care of nature,” says one researcher.

European study found abrupt increase in logging in the Nordic countries. Norwegian researchers beg to differ

They believe the results are due to the fact that satellite-based maps have improved.

The Nansen Legacy Winter Gaps Cruise

In the Barents Sea

From burial urns to surfboards – wool can be used to make just about anything

OPINION: There’s no such thing as bad wool, only bad use.

These rodents may be the reason Norway has one of the world's most radioactive glaciers

Traces of radioactivity from Chernobyl and nuclear explosions from the Soviet era coat the surface of the glacier. Researchers are surprised by the high radioactive levels they’ve found.

Norwegian glaciers are shrinking all over the country

A new mapping of the country’s glaciers finds that they have shrunk by 14 per cent.

Beijing Olympics 2022: The controversies posing hidden risks for China and the IOC

OPINION: The International Olympic Committee risks alienating democracies who expect the organization to live up to its values instead of serving modern autocracies’ economic and nationalistic interests.

Hunting moorings in the dark

– fieldwork in the polar night

Have Russian climate scientists convinced Vladimir Putin that climate change is real?

The Russian president recently stated that the country will become carbon neutral by the year 2060, but there’s a big gap between words and deeds in Russian climate policy, researchers say.

Deadly heat and extreme rainfall: This is what the world will be like if the temperature rises by 3 degrees, according to researchers

“It is very likely that we will reach three degrees. I consider 1.5 and 2 degrees to be almost unattainable. Now the question is how close to three we will get,” says one Norwegian researcher.

A strong breeze and chance of storms: How we used pollen to create a wind forecast from 10,000 years ago

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: Pollen can travel far through the air, allowing scientists who find them to trace the winds of the past. Maaike Zwier writes about her new study from South Georgia, where ancient pollen may reveal shifts in the dominating westerlies.

Is green growth possible?

OPINION: Increases in economic growth contribute to one-for-one increases in carbon emissions. Energy system decarbonization and economic productivity gains are the most effective carbon emissions mitigation mechanisms for sustainable economic development.

A new round of hunting for instruments in the dark polar night

It is november, polar night, and almost winter – must be time for a cruise to the Arctic Ocean to collect instruments and equipment for our project!

Small pieces and large pictures in Arctic marine science

Arctic marine research is really exciting, and one could make blockbuster movies, or a tv-series based on research expeditions, such as those within the Nansen Legacy project.

Microplastic research needs a common language

SHARE YOUR SCIENCE: With increased knowledge about microplastics in the environment comes new challenges. Researchers see significant challenges in maintaining the quality of knowledge that is shared, and how it is used further.

Fifty years of plastic trash hidden beneath the sod

“We had to remove a lot of vegetation to get rid of the plastic,” said one of the researchers behind a new Norwegian study.

The COP26 plastic uniforms are a disaster for the environment

OPINION: Recycled plastic clothing will never save the climate.

Rare earths: Norwegian fertilizer against a Chinese near-monopoly

Electric cars, mobile phones, wind turbines — modern technology needs metals that are almost exclusively found in China. Residues from Norwegian fertilizer production can help Europe become less dependent on a country that wants to produce more itself.

Making useful products from greenhouse gases

A new plant will use CO2 to both replace oil and be transformed into useful chemicals.

What’s best for the climate, buying a new electric car or driving your old petrol car into the ground?

The answer depends on how the emissions are calculated, it turns out. And here the experts disagree.

The summer of 2020 lured out many first-time hikers

Fewer and fewer Norwegians are interested in hiking off the marked mountain trails, according to researchers from the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research.

Could Isaac Newton show us the way into the Green Shift?

Climate change, loss of biodiversity, and degraded ecosystems: we're in trouble and something needs to be done. We need to change, and we know what to do. But we probably need some help on how to proceed. Maybe we can be inspired by Isaac Newton’s three laws?

Hardcore science

On the JC2-2 cruise we are visiting the deep basins of the Arctic Ocean. The goal of my team is to conduct experiments with animals from the bottom of those basins, which means keeping deep, Arctic animals alive. If deep-sea diving is an extreme sport, then this is definitely extreme science.

Ephemeral landscapes

Have you ever watched the colors of the sunset over the sea – then suddenly the beautiful moment is gone, and darkness surrounds you. Arctic sea ice is like that - a temporary and beautiful landscape constantly presenting moments that are suddenly gone, if you dare to blink.

The Transpolar Drift current

The largest Arctic river - transports materials into the central Arctic Ocean from Siberian Shelf across the North Pole

The tiniest do the heavy lifting

– Who are they and what do microbes do in the Arctic Ocean?

Here’s what the latest climate models say about what will happen to Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets

More warming doesn’t necessarily mean that meltwater from Antarctica will contribute to even more sea level rise in 2100, but there’s still a great deal of uncertainty about the future.

Norwegians have built a half-million cabins as holiday homes. Is that too many?

There’s roughly one cabin for every tenth Norwegian, and more will be built.

The Arctic Ocean blender system

The Arctic Ocean is composed of different layers organized on the vertical, and these layers have different temperature and salinity properties. A cold and fresh surface layer caps a warm and salty layer of Atlantic Water. The heat contained at depth (about 300m) in the warm and salty Atlantic Water could melt the entire Arctic sea ice cover if it reached the surface. It does not happen because the cold surface layer caps this Atlantic layer quite well and keeps it at depth. However, in some regions, such as north of Svalbard, sea ice melts in summer even though it is -30 outside. How is that possible?

The Central Arctic Ocean: No longer the once forgotten no man’s land

Large trawlers are pulling tons of fish out of the deep Central Arctic Ocean. Our cell phones are powered with rare earth elements from the seafloor underneath the North Pole. The ice-free Arctic allows much shorter delivery time of shipped goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Coast guard ships dot the vast Arctic coastline and fleets of submarines survey the chilly waters. Will these scenarios soon be a reality? To some extent some of them already are.

What kind of climate measures work in villages and towns?

What works in the city doesn’t always work in a village. Or vice versa. But are some climate measures suitable for both environments?

Why are young climate activists being harassed online?

How does this kind of abuse impact young people’s political engagement?

Will the future Arctic Ocean become greener?

On land grass and other plants provide ecosystems with food and play an essential role in binding CO2 from the atmosphere. Microscopically small plants called algae fulfill this role in the world’s oceans.

Cracks in the cooking pot lid

The point of putting a lid on a cooking pot is to prevent the transfer of heat and moisture between the boiling contents and the air above. When you remove the lid from a boiling pot, heat and water vapour flow upward into the air, along with chemical compounds filling your kitchen with the (hopefully) promising smells of an upcoming meal.