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While Zach Galifianakis finds peace in gardening, I’m at war with raccoons Read the full story at Grist. I caught a raccoon almost literally red-handed the other day. The night before, it (and presumably the comrades in its pack, technically known as a “gaze” of raccoons, because sure why not) had…

How a kindergarten teacher became the accidental guardian of 200 king penguins Read the full story in The Guardian. When the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay, Chile, Cecilia Durán Gafo decided she would protect them from people and predators

Home compostable packaging: progress but not a silver bullet Read the full story at Biocycle. See also: Kachook, O. (2026). SPC research into home composting behaviors and packaging. Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Americans experience a paradox when it comes to food waste. Nearly seven in ten…

Pollen allergies are brutal this year – a doctor explains why, and how to find relief Sneezing, wheezing … it’s allergy season. Science Photo Library/Getty Images by Levi Keller, University of Colorado Anschutz Spring means beautiful flowers, fragrant lilacs – and lots of tree pollen coating cars…

Elon Musk’s xAI adds more unpermitted gas generators for data centers Read the full story at Canary Media. Elon Musk’s data center company, xAI, has more than doubled the number of unchecked natural gas generators at its Southaven facility since coming to Mississippi last summer. The company uses…

Scientists improve knowledge on sea level rise — and confirm it is accelerating since 1960 Read the full story from the Chinese Academy of Science. See also: Zheng, H., Cheng, L., Dangendorf, S., Meyssignac, B., Barnoud, A., Trenberth, K. E., Fasullo, J. T., & Abraham, J. (2026). Improved closure…

How Gitlab manages AI’s emissions overhead Read the full story at Trellis. Gitlab, which sells software coding tools used by more than half of Fortune 500 companies including Nvidia and Goldman Sachs, is adding artificial intelligence features across its product portfolio and using them to improve…

The global sand crisis: it’s being used up faster than it can be replaced Read the full story in The Guardian. See also: UNEP. (2026). Sand and sustainability: An essential resource for nature and development. GRID-Geneva, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Around the world, urban…

Recreate famous water profiles using supermarket bottled water The Water Dictionary provides simple mixing instructions for brewing, coffee, baking, and aquariums using water from your own supermarket. Want to make an authentic tasting New York City bagel at home in Illinois? There's a recipe for…

The 100 greatest bird names of all time Read the full post at Bird History. I love bird names. And in a world with more than 11,000 kinds of birds, ornithologists have had to dig deep to come up with unique titles for each one. While literal descriptions have their place (I’m delighted every time…

Read the full story at Biocycle. See also: Kachook, O. (2026). SPC research into home composting behaviors and packaging. Sustainable Packaging Coalition. Americans experience a paradox when it comes to food waste. Nearly seven in ten feel guilty throwing food scraps into the trash, yet the vast majority continue the practice regularly. This tension between environmental consciousness and actual behavior reveals a more systemic problem that extends directly to the viability of home compostable packaging as a waste mitigation solution.

Read the full story in The Guardian. When the birds started nesting on her land at Useless Bay, Chile, Cecilia Durán Gafo decided she would protect them from people and predators

Read the full story from the Chinese Academy of Science. See also: Zheng, H., Cheng, L., Dangendorf, S., Meyssignac, B., Barnoud, A., Trenberth, K. E., Fasullo, J. T., & Abraham, J. (2026). Improved closure of the global mean sea level budget from observational advances since 1960. Science Advances, 12(21), eaea0652. Sea level rise is a direct consequence of human-induced climate change: global warming.

Read the full story at Trellis. Gitlab, which sells software coding tools used by more than half of Fortune 500 companies including Nvidia and Goldman Sachs, is adding artificial intelligence features across its product portfolio and using them to improve productivity. Environmental considerations were integrated into both plans, and Gitlab adopted guidelines in 2025 that suggest what AI software vendors should disclose as part of sales contracts. Gitlab’s chief information officer helps educate the company about those rules.

Sneezing, wheezing … it’s allergy season. Science Photo Library/Getty Images by Levi Keller, University of Colorado Anschutz Spring means beautiful flowers, fragrant lilacs – and lots of tree pollen coating cars and setting off sneezing, wheezing and headaches. As an allergist and immunologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, I help patients with seasonal allergies and associated allergic diseases manage their conditions, and one question comes up year in and out: Will this season be worse than last year?

Read the full story at Grist. I caught a raccoon almost literally red-handed the other day. The night before, it (and presumably the comrades in its pack, technically known as a “gaze” of raccoons, because sure why not) had assaulted my garden, digging holes willy-nilly and uprooting seedlings I’d just put in the ground. In my three years of gardening, I’ve never actually seen the critters I’ve been at war with, on account of their nighttime raids.

Read the full story in The Guardian. See also: UNEP. (2026). Sand and sustainability: An essential resource for nature and development. GRID-Geneva, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Around the world, urban development and industry is using sand at a rate of 50bn tonnes a year, a figure that is expected to grow. But a new UN report warns that sand is being extracted faster than it can be replenished, and that this is threatening livelihoods, ecosystems and the very structure of the natural world.

Read the full story at Canary Media. Elon Musk’s data center company, xAI, has more than doubled the number of unchecked natural gas generators at its Southaven facility since coming to Mississippi last summer. The company uses the turbines to power its two data centers just across the state line in Memphis, and is also planning to build another large center in Southaven.

Read the full post at Bird History. I love bird names. And in a world with more than 11,000 kinds of birds, ornithologists have had to dig deep to come up with unique titles for each one. While literal descriptions have their place (I’m delighted every time someone asks me the name of that black bird with red wings), we’re fortunate that many, many others are surprising, bizarre, never-before-uttered sequences of words or sounds.

The Water Dictionary provides simple mixing instructions for brewing, coffee, baking, and aquariums using water from your own supermarket. Want to make an authentic tasting New York City bagel at home in Illinois? There's a recipe for that. Each mixing recipe has options for commonly found bottled waters in the UK, US, France, and Italy. Each recipe also offers alternatives, as well as mineral composition and information about why the water composition is important in the final product.