Environment

The Arctic is undergoing rapid and profound climate change, warming an alarming 3-4 times faster than the global average and expected to be "profoundly different" by 2050. A startling record of 38 °C (100 °F) was observed inside the Arctic Circle on June 20, 2020, a temperature previously anticipated only by 2100. This extreme warming ...

Pollution is the introduction of harmful contaminants, from substances like plastics and gases to energy such as noise and radiation, into the natural environment, predominantly due to human activities like industrialization, agriculture, and poor waste management. Historically unregulated through much of the 19th and early 20th centur...

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is Australia's principal federal law safeguarding the nation's environment, biodiversity, and natural and culturally significant places. Enacted on 16 July 2000, it replaced several older acts and established mechanisms, such ...

The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), located in Syracuse, New York, is a public research university focused on the environment and natural resources, classified for its high research activity within the SUNY system. It was established on July 28, 1911, as the New York St...

The environmental impact of Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) has been a growing concern since the 1990s, with initial reports of waterway contamination dating back to the 1970s. These widely produced substances, used for personal health, cosmetics, and agribusiness, are inadequately removed by conventional sewage trea...

The year 2025 revealed critical insights and alarming trends in global warming and climate change. It was reported that 2024 became the warmest year on record, reaching 1.6 °C above pre-industrial levels and exceeding the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C target for the first time. André Corrêa do Lago, director of COP30, highlighted a shift fr...

Sustainable construction represents the building industry's crucial contribution to sustainable development, focusing on minimizing the negative health and environmental impacts of structures throughout their entire life cycle. This approach considers three dimensions—planet, people, and profit—and emphasizes using non...

Environmental health is a vital branch of public health dedicated to understanding and managing all aspects of the natural and built environment that influence human well-being. The World Health Organization (WHO) has progressively defined this field since 1989, emphasizing the assessment and control of physical, chemical, and biologic...

Freshwater ecosystems, encompassing lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands, are vital aquatic habitats supporting a remarkable 41% of the world's known fish species. These diverse systems are broadly categorized as lentic (slow-moving waters), lotic (faster-moving waters), and wetlands, with monitoring methods evolving from addressing ea...

Environmental laws are a comprehensive body of legal frameworks, including treaties, statutes, and regulations, designed to protect the natural environment and manage human impact on resources and ecosystems. This critical field addresses issues like pollution control, biodiversity protection, and climate change mitigation, aiming to b...

An Environmental Management System (EMS) is a systematic framework that integrates an organization's policies, procedures, and processes to manage its environmental impact effectively. The most widely recognized standard for an EMS is ISO 14001, which guides companies in establishing these systems.

The primary g...

Kuwait, a small Middle Eastern nation, confronts significant environmental challenges, including climate change, widespread pollution from its oil industry, agricultural loss, and biodiversity damage. A pivotal moment was the 1991 Oil Fires during the Gulf War, which caused immense and long-lasting contamination of air...