Air Pollution News

November 20, 2025

Top Headlines

New Report Reveals Major Risks in Turning Oceans Into Carbon Sinks

Nov. 20, 2025 Experts say the ocean could help absorb carbon dioxide, but today’s technologies are too uncertain to be scaled up safely. New findings released during COP30 highlight the risks of rushing into marine carbon removal without proper monitoring and ...

Scientists Finally Discover What’s Fueling Massive Sargassum Blooms

Nov. 19, 2025 Massive Sargassum blooms sweeping across the Caribbean and Atlantic are fueled by a powerful nutrient partnership: phosphorus pulled to the surface by equatorial upwelling and nitrogen supplied by cyanobacteria living directly on the drifting algae. ...

Space Dust Reveals How Fast the Arctic Is Changing

Nov. 13, 2025 Arctic sea ice is disappearing fast, and scientists have turned to an unexpected cosmic clue—space dust—to uncover how ice has changed over tens of thousands of years. By tracking helium-3–bearing dust trapped (or blocked) by ancient ice, ...

Your Pumpkin Might Be Hiding a Toxic Secret

Oct. 30, 2025 Researchers in Japan have revealed how some gourds draw pollutants into their fruits. The secret lies in a protein that carries contaminants through the plant sap. By manipulating this protein’s structure, scientists hope to breed crops that ...

Scientists Say Dimming the Sun Could Spark Global Chaos

Oct. 21, 2025 Scientists are taking the once-radical concept of dimming the sun through stratospheric aerosol injection (SAI) seriously, but a Columbia University team warns that reality is far messier than models suggest. Their study reveals how physical, ...

Scientists Just Found Hidden Life Thriving Beneath the Arctic Ice

Oct. 21, 2025 Melting Arctic ice is revealing a hidden world of nitrogen-fixing bacteria beneath the surface. These microbes, not the usual cyanobacteria, enrich the ocean with nitrogen, fueling algae growth that supports the entire marine food chain. As ice ...

Wildfire Smoke Could Kill 70,000 Americans a Year by 2050

Sep. 19, 2025 Wildfires are no longer a seasonal nuisance but a deadly, nationwide health crisis. Fueled by climate change, smoke is spreading farther and lingering longer, with new research warning of tens of thousands of additional deaths annually by ...

Rapid Rocket Growth Raises Alarm over Earth’s Fragile Ozone Layer

Sep. 15, 2025 The booming space industry has filled the skies with rockets and satellites, but this rapid expansion comes with a hidden danger: slowing the recovery of the ozone layer. Rocket launches and burning space debris release chlorine, soot, and metals ...

Scientists Finally Solve the Mystery of Ghostly Halos on the Ocean Floor

Sep. 10, 2025 Barrels dumped off Southern California decades ago have been found leaking alkaline waste, not just DDT, leaving behind eerie white halos and transforming parts of the seafloor into toxic vents. The findings reveal a persistent and little-known ...

The Invisible Plastic Threat You Can Finally See

Sep. 10, 2025 Researchers in Germany and Australia have created a simple but powerful tool to detect nanoplastics—tiny, invisible particles that can slip through skin and even the blood-brain barrier. Using an "optical sieve" test strip viewed under a regular ...

A Simple Metal Could Solve the World’s Plastic Recycling Problem

Sep. 3, 2025 Scientists at Northwestern University have developed a groundbreaking nickel-based catalyst that could transform the way the world recycles plastic. Instead of requiring tedious sorting, the catalyst selectively breaks down stubborn polyolefin ...

Ozone Recovery Could Trigger 40% More Global Warming Than Predicted

Aug. 22, 2025 As the ozone layer recovers, it’s also intensifying global warming. Researchers predict that by 2050, ozone will rank just behind carbon dioxide as a driver of heating, offsetting many of the benefits from banning ...

Latest Headlines

updated 2:30pm EST

A Clue to Ancient Life? What Scientists Found Inside Mars’ Frozen Vortex

Oct. 19, 2025 Mars’ north polar vortex locks its atmosphere in extreme cold and darkness, freezing out water vapor and triggering a dramatic rise in ozone. Scientists found that the lack of sunlight and moisture ...

The Surprising Way Rising CO2 Could Supercharge Space Storms

Aug. 17, 2025 Rising CO₂ levels will make the upper atmosphere colder and thinner, altering how geomagnetic storms impact satellites. Future storms could cause sharper density spikes despite lower overall ...

Is the Air You Breathe Silently Fueling Dementia? A 29-Million-Person Study Says Yes

July 27, 2025 Air pollution isn't just bad for your lungs—it may be eroding your brain. In a sweeping review covering nearly 30 million people, researchers found ...

Scientists Modeled Nuclear Winter—the Global Food Collapse Was Worse Than Expected

July 26, 2025 What would happen if a nuclear war triggered a climate-altering catastrophe? Researchers have modeled how such a scenario could devastate global corn ...

Frozen for 12,000 Years, This Alpine Ice Core Captures the Rise of Civilization

July 16, 2025 An ancient glacier high in the French Alps has revealed the oldest known ice in Western Europe—dating back over 12,000 years to the last Ice Age. ...

Fire Smoke Exposure Leaves Toxic Metals and Lasting Immune Changes

June 30, 2025 Smoke from wildfires and structural fires doesn t just irritate lungs it actually changes your immune system. Harvard scientists found that even healthy people exposed to smoke showed signs of immune ...

Fighting Fire With Fire: How Prescribed Burns Reduce Wildfire Damage and Pollution

June 30, 2025 Wildfires are becoming more intense and dangerous, but a new Stanford-led study offers hope: prescribed burns—intentionally set, controlled ...

Gravity, Flipped: How Tiny, Porous Particles Sink Faster in Ocean Snowstorms

June 21, 2025 In a twist on conventional wisdom, researchers have discovered that in ocean-like fluids with changing density, tiny porous particles can sink faster ...

Forever Chemicals' Toxic Cousin: MCCPs Detected in U. S. Air for First Time

June 18, 2025 In a surprising twist during an air quality study in Oklahoma, researchers detected MCCPs an industrial pollutant never before measured in the Western Hemisphere's atmosphere. The team suspects these ...

Atmospheric Chemistry Keeps Pollutants in the Air

June 3, 2025 A new study details processes that keep pollutants aloft despite a drop in ...

Human-Caused Dust Events Are Linked to Fallow Farmland

June 2, 2025 California Central Valley, which is known for the agriculture that produces much of the nation's fruits, vegetables and nuts, is a major contributor to a growing dust problem that has profound ...

Rising Soil Nitrous Acid Emissions, Driven by Climate Change and Fertilization, Accelerate Global Ozone Pollution

May 30, 2025 Ozone pollution is a global environmental concern that not only threatens human health and crop production, but also worsens global warming. While the formation of ozone is often attributed to ...

2021's Hurricane Ida Could Have Been Even Worse for NYC

May 29, 2025 Hurricane Ida wreaked an estimated $75 billion in total damages and was responsible for 112 fatalities -- including 32 in New Jersey and 16 in New York state. Yet the hurricane could have been even ...

An Iron Oxide 'Oxygen Sponge' for Efficient Thermochemical Hydrogen Production

May 29, 2025 As the world shifts toward sustainable energy sources, 'green hydrogen' - hydrogen produced without emitting carbon - has emerged as a leading candidate for clean power. Scientists have now ...

Portable Sensor Enables Community Lead Detection in Tap Water

May 29, 2025 Lead contamination in municipal water sources is a consistent threat to public health. Ingesting even tiny amounts of lead can harm the human brain and nervous system -- especially in young children. ...

Does Outdoor Air Pollution Affect Indoor Air Quality? It Could Depend on Buildings' HVAC

May 29, 2025 Researchers determined how much outdoor particulate pollution affects indoor air quality. Their study concluded pollution from inversion and dust events is kept out of buildings, but wildfire smoke ...

New Study Analyzes Air Quality Impacts of Wildfire Smoke

May 27, 2025 With wildfires increasing in frequency, severity, and size in the Western U.S., researchers are determined to better understand how smoke impacts air quality, public health, and even the weather. As ...

Rapid Simulations of Toxic Particles Could Aid Air Pollution Fight

May 27, 2025 A pioneering method to simulate how microscopic particles move through the air could boost efforts to combat air pollution, a study ...

A New Approach Could Fractionate Crude Oil Using Much Less Energy

May 22, 2025 Engineers developed a membrane that filters the components of crude oil by their molecular size, an advance that could dramatically reduce the amount of energy needed for crude oil ...

Climate Change May Make It Harder to Reduce Smog in Some Regions

May 22, 2025 A modeling study shows that global warming will make it harder to reduce ground-level ozone, a respiratory irritant that is a key component of smog, by cutting greenhouse gas ...

Personal Space Chemistry Suppressed by Perfume and Body Lotion Indoors

May 21, 2025 In 2022 a team discovered that high levels of OH radicals can be generated indoors, simply due to the presence of people and ozone. This means: People generate their own oxidation field and change ...

Scientists Invent Breakthrough Device to Detect Airborne Signs of Disease

May 21, 2025 If you've ever sat waiting at the doctor's office to give a blood sample, you might have wished there was a way to find the same information without needles. But for all the medical ...

Southeast Asia Could Prevent Up to 36,000 Ozone-Related Early Deaths a Year by 2050 With Stricter Air Pollution Controls

May 21, 2025 A study has found that implementing robust air pollution control measures could mean Southeast Asian countries prevent as many as 36,000 ozone-related premature deaths each year by ...

Study Reveals Healing the Ozone Hole Helps the Southern Ocean Take Up Carbon

May 16, 2025 New research suggests that the negative effects of the ozone hole on the carbon uptake of the Southern Ocean are reversible, but only if greenhouse gas emissions rapidly decrease. The study finds ...

One in Ten Asthma Cases Can Be Avoided With a Better Urban Environment

May 16, 2025 The combination of air pollution, dense urban development and limited green spaces increases the risk of asthma in both children and ...

Drinking Water, Select Foods Linked to PFAS in California Adults

May 14, 2025 A new study examined associations between diet, drinking water, and 'legacy' PFAS -- chemicals that were phased out of production in the US in the 2000s -- with blood samples from ...

Artificial Intelligence and Genetics Can Help Farmers Grow Corn With Less Fertilizer

May 14, 2025 Scientists are using artificial intelligence to determine which genes collectively govern nitrogen use efficiency in plants such as corn, with the goal of helping farmers improve their crop yields ...

Summer in the City: Urban Heat Release and Local Rainfall

May 12, 2025 Stifling heat and sticky air often make summertime in the city uncomfortable. Due to the heat island effect, urban areas are significantly warmer than nearby rural areas, even at night. This, ...

Satellite Measures CO2 and NO2 Simultaneously from Power Plant Emissions for the First Time

May 9, 2025 A research team used the German environmental satellite EnMAP (Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program) to simultaneously detect the two key air pollutants carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrogen ...

New Study Tracks Air Pollution and CO2 Emissions Across Thousands of Cities Worldwide

May 7, 2025 In a sweeping new study of more than 13,000 urban areas worldwide, researchers have mapped air pollution levels and carbon dioxide emissions, providing comprehensive global analysis of urban ...