By Sam Lemonick / c&en January 3, 2018 Computer simulations predict a new light-activated catalyst could make the Haber-Bosch process obsolete The world relies on the Haber-Bosch process to reduce atmospheric nitrogen to ammonia to make fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, and other industrially important chemicals. But the process consumes a tremendous amount of energy—about 1% of the [...]
By Keith Magill / Daily Comet January 2, 2018 A local wetlands advocacy group has forged an agreement it hopes will help reduce the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone The Thibodaux-based Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program announced the deal Tuesday. The non-binding agreement with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture opens the door for [...]
By Emily Atkin / New Republic December 13, 2017 Apocalyptic weather dominated the headlines, but meat production also caused severe destruction in 2017. Off the coast of Louisiana, in an 8,000-square-mile swath of ocean, the marine life is suffocating to death. Nutrient pollution, flowing from the Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mexico, is birthing huge [...]
By Steve Hardy / The Advocate November 30, 2017 Shrimpers and environmentalists gathered on the banks of the Mississippi River here Thursday to call on livestock farmers to help protect the Gulf of Mexico. Sustainability group Mighty Earth sent an open letter to the CEO of Tyson Foods, urging him to take steps to prevent [...]
Dr. Nancy Rabalais and members of the LUMCON team prepare to deploy a Sea-Bird Scientific SBE 32 carousel water sampler with a CTD into the Gulf of Mexico. (Credit: LUMCON) Mindy Cooper / Environmental Monitor November 28, 2017 During the summer of 2017, researchers with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) and Louisiana [...]
Nancy Rabalais speaks at TEDWomen 2017 Bridges, November 1-3, 2017, Orpheum Theatre, New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo: Stacie McChesney / TED Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, presented a TED talk at TEDWomen in New Orleans on November 1, 2017. The theme of the conference was “Bridges,” [...]
By Alma Gaul | Quad-City Times October 12, 2017 Based on historic weather patterns, the Midwestern United States can expect the drought of the century around 2025, according to Elwynn Taylor, a climatologist for Iowa State University Extension, Ames. The Midwest might be ripe for a major drought in 2025, according to a climatologist [...]
By Lacrosse Tribune October 10, 2017 A massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has grown to the largest size on record this year, expanding to an area as big as the state of New Jersey Rivers and streams across a huge swath of middle America drain into the Mississippi River and then down [...]
By Sara Sneath | The Times-Picayune October 5, 2017 Researchers have measured the dead zone growing along the Louisiana and Texas coasts during the summer months since 1985. This year, one of those researchers carried a GoPro with him as he dove below the surface in the heart of the oxygen-deprived waters. In mid-August, Cameron [...]
By Irina Zhorov / WHYY September 29, 2017 Along a sleepy bayou, in the midst of the lacework of land and water that makes up the coast of Louisiana, Captain Jason Dempster unloads a shrimp boat. He’s spent the last 23 days at sea. Captain Jason Dempster mans a shrimp boat in the brackish [...]
