Can You Tell Which Headlines Aren’t Real?

🐕 Yes, you read that right: dogs are on the hunt for environmental injustice. A non-profit called Indigenous Vision—which is working to revitalize Indigenous culture, people, and land—is employing working dogs to sniff out toxic contamination such as copper, lead, and other heavy metals. The dogs, who are part of a collaborative project between Indigenous Vision and an organization called Working Dogs for Conservation (WD4C), can also “detect invasive plants in the seedling stage, animals that live underground, and endangered animals,” according to a canine field specialist from WD4C. “The dogs have been tremendously helpful in finding what we cannot see,” said Souta Calling Last, the founder and executive director of Indigenous Vision. Currently, the dogs are training to be able to detect PFAS, as well as illnesses in wildlife.

🪱 As sci-fi as it sounds, scientists truly did resurrect a small worm that had been in “suspended animation deep in the Siberian permafrost” for the last 46,000 years. The scientists leading this study hope to learn about the mechanisms of entering a dormant state to survive in extreme conditions to “reveal more about how, at a molecular level, animals can adapt as habitats shift because of soaring global temperatures and changing weather patterns.”

☄️ And lastly, although the idea of physically blocking the sun did indeed serve as a plot point in The Simpsons several decades ago, it is also an actual idea that has recently gained momentum as a climate solution. Recently, István Szapudi, a theoretical cosmologist from the University of Hawaii, has proposed using an asteroid to achieve this. One of the obstacles of creating a sunshield is that it would be difficult to keep it from drifting out of place. Szapudi’s recent study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that one solution to this problem could involve affixing an asteroid to the shield so that it stays put. Geoengineering is a highly controversial topic, and though it was recently the subject of a report by the White House and discussion in Congress, still a theoretical one.

🌡 Several countries in South America, including Chile and Argentina, have experienced numerous heat waves this season, despite it being winter in the Southern hemisphere. Some areas have reached 100°F, and others have broken their all-time high temperature records (from any time of the year).

🧟‍♂️ In Indonesia, a recent study reports that a new type of plastic pollution called “Frankenrocks” is emerging. This phenomenon results from molten plastic fusing with organic and naturally-occurring materials such as rocks and coral. The plastic likely comes from the burning of garbage. The term includes plastic pollution taking a variety of forms that mimic natural objects, such as rocks and pebbles, as well as crusts of plastic layering coastal surfaces.

🏔 And in Juneau, Alaska, flooding from the nearby Mendenhall Glacier—which has been occurring annually for the last decade—escalated and swept away two entire homes and a part of a third, and damaged many more. The flooding also threatened industrial infrastructure such as fuel tanks and hazardous materials containers. Research has shown that glaciers are especially susceptible to changing climate conditions.

🏥 An Environmental Health Research study found that, following the closure of a Pittsburgh coal processing plant in 2016, folks living near the plant had a 42% decrease in hospital visits for heart-related problems, a trend which continued for several years. Additionally, levels of sulfur dioxide air pollution fell by 90% near the site of the plant, and arsenic particulate matter fell by 66%.

🏞 And in June, a municipality in Brazil approved a proposal by an Indigenous councilman to grant personhood to the Komi Memem River and its tributaries, becoming the first river in the Brazilian Amazon to be considered a living entity with rights. The river is vital to the Wari’ people, who are indigenous to the area, and is actively under threat from deforestation, pollution, invasions, and land-stealing. The hope is that granting personhood status to the river will protect it, as well as the surrounding area and its inhabitants, from these threats.