The University of Bristol-led research, published today in Nature Communications, shows that unprecedented heat extremes combined with socioeconomic vulnerability puts certain regions, such as Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and Central America,most in peril.

Countries yet to experience the most intense heatwaves are often especially susceptible, as adaptation measures are often only introduced after the event. A high chance of record-breaking temperatures, growing populations, and limited healthcare and energy provision, increase the risks.

Beijing and Central Europe are also on the list of hotspots, as if record-breaking heatwaves occurred in these densely populated regions millions of people would be adversely affected.

In light of the findings, the researchers are calling for policy makers in hotspot regions to consider relevant action plans to reduce the risk of deaths and associated harms from climate extremes.

Lead author, climate scientist Dr Vikki Thompson at the University of Bristol Cabot Institute for the Environment, said: “As heatwaves are occurring more often we need to be better prepared. We identify regions that may have been lucky so far — some of these regions have rapidly growing populations, some are developing nations, some are already very hot. We need to ask if the heat action plans for these areas are sufficient.”

The researchers used extreme value statistics — a method to estimate the return periods of rare events — and large datasets from climate models and observations to pinpoint regions globally where temperature records are most likely to be broken soonest and the communities consequently in greatest danger of experiencing extreme heat.

The researchers also cautioned that statistically implausible extremes, when current records are broken by margins that seemed impossible until they occurred, could happen anywhere. These unlikely events were found to have transpired in almost a third (31%) of the regions assessed where observations were deemed reliable enough between 1959 and 2021, such as the 2021 Western North America heatwave.

Co-author Dann Mitchell, Professor in Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Bristol Cabot Institute for the Environment, said: “Being prepared saves lives. We have seen some of the most unexpected heatwaves around the world lead to heat-related deaths in the tens of thousands. In this study, we show that such record smashing events could occur anywhere. Governments around the world need to be prepared.”

Human-induced climate change is causing an increase in the frequency, intensity, and duration of heatwaves, which have the potential to lead to thousands more excess deaths globally.

Improving our understanding of where society may not be ready for climate extremes can help prioritise mitigation in the most vulnerable regions. In recognition of the dangerous consequences of climate change, evidenced by the work of its climate experts, in 2019 the University of Bristol became the first UK university to declare a climate emergency.

These sudden episodes, called Heinrich Events, occurred between 16,000 and 60,000 years ago. They altered the circulation of the world’s oceans, spurring cooling in the North Atlantic and impacting monsoon rainfall around the world.

But little was known about the events’ effect on nearby Greenland, which is thought to be very sensitive to events in the North Atlantic. A new study from Oregon State University researchers, just published in the journal Nature, provides a definitive answer.

“It turns out, nothing happened in Greenland. The temperature just stayed the same,” said the study’s lead author, Kaden Martin, a fourth-year doctoral candidate in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “They had front-row seats to this action but didn’t see the show.”

Instead, the researchers found that these Heinrich events caused rapid warming in Antarctica, at the other end of the globe.

The researchers anticipated Greenland, in close proximity to the ice sheet, would have experienced some kind of cooling. To find that these Heinrich Events had no discernible impact on temperatures in Greenland is surprising and could have repercussions for scientists’ understanding of past climate dynamics, said study co-author Christo Buizert, an assistant professor in the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences.

“If anything, our findings raise more questions than answers,” said Buizert, a climate change specialist who uses ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica to reconstruct and understand the Earth’s climate history. “This really changes how we look at these massive events in the North Atlantic. It’s puzzling that far-flung Antarctica responds more strongly than nearby Greenland.”

Scientists drill and preserve ice cores to study past climate history through analysis of the dust and tiny air bubbles that have been trapped in the ice over time. Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica provide important records of Earth’s atmospheric changes over hundreds of thousands of years.

Records from ice cores from those regions have served as pillars for scientists’ understanding of past climate events, with ice collected from both locations often telling similar stories, Martin said.

The impact of Heinrich Events on Greenland and Antarctica was not well understood, spurring Martin and Buizert to try to find out more about what was happening in those parts of the world.

The core used for the latest study was collected in 1992 from the highest point of Greenland, where the ice sheet is around 2 miles thick. Since then, the core has been in storage in the National Science Foundation Ice Core Facility in Denver.

Advancement in scientific tools and measurements over the last few decades gave Martin, Buizert and their colleagues the opportunity to re-examine the core using new methods.

The analysis shows that no changes in temperatures occurred in Greenland during Heinrich Events. But it also provides a very clear connection between Heinrich Events and the Antarctic response.

“When these big iceberg discharges happen in the Arctic, we now know that Antarctica responds right away,” Buizert said. “What happens in one part of the world has an effect on the rest of the world. This inter-hemispheric connection is likely caused by change in global wind patterns.”

The finding challenges the current understanding of global climate dynamics during these massive events and raises new questions for researchers, Buizert said. The researchers’ next step is to take the new information and run it through climate models to see if the models can replicate what occurred.

“There has to be a story that fits all of the evidence, something that connects all the dots,” he said. “Our discovery adds two new dots; it’s not the full story, and it may not be the main story. It is possible that the Pacific Ocean plays an important role that we haven’t figured out yet.”

The ultimate goal is to better understand how the climate system is connected and how the components all interact, the researchers said.

“While Heinrich Events are not going to happen in the future, abrupt changes in the globally interconnected climate system will happen again,” Martin said. “Understanding the global dynamics of the climate system can help us better project future impacts and inform how we respond and adapt.”

Additional co-authors are Ed Brook, Jon Edwards, Michael Kalk and Ben Riddell-Young of OSU; Ross Beaudette and Jeffrey Severinghaus of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Todd Sowers of Pennsylvania State University.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Global Climate Change Foundation and the Gary Comer Science and Education Foundation.

“There is no consistent evidence that perceiving climate change as psychologically distant hinders climate action, with studies reporting mixed results,” write the authors, led by Dr. Anne M. van Valkengoed of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

van Valkengoed and her colleagues collected results from public opinion polls surveying people about their views on climate change, some of which included over 100,000 people from 121 different countries. The polls showed that over 50% of participants actually believe that climate change is happening either now or in the near future and that it will impact their local areas, not just faraway places.

The team also looked at the results of several studies designed to test the relationship between psychological distance and climate action. Out of 26 reviewed studies, only nine found a positive association between psychological distance and climate action. In fact, some studies showed that viewing climate change as impacting distant places and communities made people want to take more action. The researchers also found that 25 out of 30 studies failed to prove that experimentally decreasing psychological distance increased climate action.

The pervasive misconception about the relationship between psychological distance and climate action could actually be impeding progress in mitigating climate change due to social influence, suggest the authors. For example, if people think others perceive climate change as psychologically distant and therefore aren’t taking action, they might be less likely to act themselves. Also, they might think that their efforts are futile because real environmental change relies on the combined efforts of many.

“We therefore recommend researchers, communicators, and policymakers instead focus on how to leverage the finding that many people already perceive climate change as occurring here and now,” said the researchers.

Grocery shopping can be challenging enough, trying to decipher ingredient labels to determine which products are the healthiest. We also have organic and non-GMO logos to consider. The latest label trend is for products grown using regenerative agriculture, a holistic land-management practice focusing on soil and ecosystem health, resulting in many public health and environmental benefits like boosting biodiversity and sequestering carbon. As regenerative agriculture continues to gain attention, companies are realizing the benefits of being part of a verified labeling system that helps their products stand out on shelves.

Problems With Regenerative Agriculture Labeling

While this progress is critical to sustainability overall, there is unfortunately no universal standard and certification system for regeneratively grown products. With at least six main labels available to date, the market is flooded with inconsistent messaging about which products are best for our bodies and the planet.

Additionally, some of these labels miss key points. “Regeneration is not just about soil health. It is fundamentally about regenerating relationships, including the role humans play in the landscape. Caring human stewardship has the capacity to regenerate landscapes faster than anything else. That means we need to have the financial capacity to support those who care about being good stewards,” explains John Kempf, entrepreneur, author, speaker, podcast host, and teacher passionate about the potential of well-managed agriculture ecosystems to reverse ecological degradation. “Also, we do not need regenerative-verified farms, we need verified supply chains. This would include a fair-trade component to ensure economic fairness.”

The regenerative agriculture labeling system leaves more questions than answers, triggering concerns that adding logos to packaging could be greenwashing. It also makes it difficult for consumers to understand and choose the highest quality products. With more labels being added to products as we speak, and even the potential for some products to contain multiple regenerative agriculture labels, consumers will need to compare and contrast each label and figure out who is backing them and the process by which companies earn the label.

Identifying Regeneratively Grown Products

Here are summaries of the most common logos to look for and links to dig in a bit deeper before perusing the grocery aisles.

Certified Regenerative

Certified Regenerative was established in 2014 by the independent nonprofit certifier A Greener World. The organization promotes practical, sustainable solutions in agriculture and upholds that regenerative agriculture is about more than soil carbon; it means healthier food, healthier and more biodiverse ecosystems, cleaner air and water, and better treatment of workers and animals.

The label covers a holistic range of farm-specific, risk-based metrics, such as soil health, biodiversity, energy efficiency, financial viability, social standards like a living wage, and animal welfare. Independently trained auditors visit every farm in the program on an ongoing basis to confirm that they are meeting rigorous standards.

A unique aspect of this label is that it prohibits the use of both agrochemicals and genetically modified crops. Certified Regenerative meets producers where they are as a partner in their regenerative journey, allowing them to earn the label without being certified organic. There is a convenient database on the website listing available labeled products.

Land to Market

With over 1,000 verified products and 80 member brands like Applegate and General Mills, Savory Institute’s Land to Market label initiated in 2018 is the world’s first verified regenerative sourcing solution for raw materials, such as meat, dairy, wool, hemp, wine, cashmere, and leather. These products are grown on land that is regenerating and verified by the science based on Savory Institute’s Ecological Outcome Verification™ (EOV™) protocol, which applies to the land, not specific products like other labels do.

Key criteria evaluated include soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem function. The label is committed to continually improving soil health but is criticized for focusing on outcomes rather than practices and does not have guidelines for how farms achieve those outcomes.

Regen1

Regen1 is a coalition of over 150 stakeholders working to transition 1 million acres of farmland in Northern California to regenerative practices by 2025 with the hope that the framework will be adapted and scaled in other regions. Started in 2021, it is a program of Green Brown Blue, a food systems solutions activator produced by The Lexicon with support from Food at Google. Other participants include farmers, ranchers, scientists, retailers, food service providers, LinkedIn, Zero Foodprint, Ecosystem Services Market Consortium, Compass, University of California-Davis, Whole Foods, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Regen1 focuses on outcomes and recognizes that farmers and ranchers follow different paths to reach regenerative practices. The label encompasses five verifiable benefits of responsible farming: water, soil, equity, biodiversity, and air. Unlike other labels, it does not include carbon as a metric. Also, producers self-report their practices in an app; therefore, this label has less oversight than others.

Regenified

Regenified is a verification and certification program for ranchers and farmers who work with nature to rebuild, revitalize, and restore ecosystem function, starting with the soil. Major players in the regenerative agriculture field, Regenified co-founders Gabe Brown and Dr. Allen Williams joined forces with other co-founders to develop a comprehensive and exhaustive standard and set of protocols that help maintain the integrity, trust, and transparency in the regenerative agriculture supply chain.

Designed to move agricultural supply chains toward regenerative agriculture to address both climate and human health, Regenified’s 6-3-4™ Verification Standard is based on six principles of soil health, three rules of stewardship, and four ecosystem processes that help farmers and ranchers understand where their practices are on the regenerative path. This comprehensive program, which measures outcomes and practices, has 16 pages of standards available to the public on its website.

Gabe Brown is excited about Regenified and believes it is the most thorough label out there. “We couldn’t find any other labels working so well. Plus, the others are not gaining traction at the scale we need them to.” A key of the program is that each producer works at their own pace to reach regenerative goals. “Any farmer or rancher can apply to be certified by Regenified. Our underlying goal is to help farms and ranches increase profitability. They can make a profit and allow the next generation to thrive.” Regenified is an approved label at Whole Foods Market. Look for labeled products on shelves soon.

Regenerative Organic Certified

As the first regenerative agriculture label, Regenerative Organic Certified began in 2017 and highlights food, textiles, and personal care products meeting standards for soil health, animal welfare, and farmworker fairness. It is overseen by the nonprofit Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA), a group of experts in farming, ranching, soil health, animal welfare, and farmer and worker fairness founded by the Rodale Institute, Dr. Bronner’s, and Patagonia.

It expands upon the USDA Certified Organic standard, adding important criteria and benchmarks that incorporate three pillars of regenerative organic agriculture.

This label ensures that consumers can find regenerative products grown without pesticides, antibiotics, and hormones. Measuring both outcomes and practices, the label requires producers to meet a list of criteria, such as practicing cover cropping, to achieve certification. As probably the most recognized regenerative label in the market to date, it consists of 129 farms and 70 brands so far.

Soil Carbon Initiative

Soil Carbon Initiative (SCI) claims to be the first independent third-party regenerative agriculture commitment and verification program open to any farmer in any production system. The Go-To-Market Pilot Program was launched in 2022, and verified claims should appear in the marketplace in 2023 on brands like Seven Sundays, Banza, and Quinn. It was launched by The Carbon Underground and developed in partnership with Danone, Green America, MegaFood, and Ben & Jerry’s.

SCI meets farmers where they are on their journey to regeneration to reach outcomes focused on soil health, carbon drawdown, biodiversity, climate resiliency, water use efficiency and quality, food security, farm profitability, and improved rural community economics. The farms are independently verified by SCS Global to make sure they are actively engaged in their transition plans, performing and reporting on required testing, and increasing the number of acres transitioned. The goal is for participating farms to have 75% to 100% of their farmed acres regenerative within 10 years of enrolling in the program. A unique aspect is that it focuses not just on the farm but the entire supply chain.

Where Do We Go From Here?

While each of these labels is backed by reputable organizations and seems to have good intentions and science behind them, the question remains: Why not combine all these endeavors into one label to make it easier for consumers and the entire supply chain? One logo endorsed by companies, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations would expect to build more confidence in the verification system and alleviate the confusion and duplication with the current labeling system.

These labeling programs help make the food supply chain transparent as more consumers care about where their food comes from and how it is grown. As Gabe Brown points out, the labels are hopefully just a temporary phase as we transition to regenerative agriculture. He asserts, “My goal is that no labeling will be necessary and that all farms are using regenerative practices anyway.” This is a worthy goal that we hope will come to fruition in the coming years. For now, consumers will have to weed through the confusion.

Many of us associate the sound of a singing bird with the beauty of nature. In recent years, though, fewer chirps, tweets, and birdsong have been heard. It isn’t because birds have stopped singing, but because there are fewer of them. A 2019 study from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology estimated that we’ve lost about 3 billion wild birds in North America, leaving 29% fewer than in 1970. Human actions are the principal reason.

It’s not just the birds. A report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services estimates that about one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction. Woody Turner, program scientist for NASA’s Biological Diversity Research Program, stated: “We are really at a global biodiversity crisis, losing not only entire species but also seeing decreases in the number of plants and animals that are important for natural ecosystems.”

A biodiverse planet means life has many different ways to survive and thrive. But human actions are affecting the natural balance of life on Earth. This includes habitat loss from deforestation, land use changes, and climate change. Rising global temperatures, a more acidic ocean, and extreme weather events — from heat waves and droughts to floods and wildfires — are rapidly changing global ecosystems. Larger organisms often take thousands to millions of years to evolve and adapt to new climates. Earth’s climate is now changing faster than many species can handle.

NASA is working with partners worldwide to monitor biodiversity changes in near real-time, linking satellite data to on-the-ground measurements. Through these measurements, scientists are working swiftly to learn what is happening and its impact on the planet.

Satellites Have Tracked Changes to Life on Earth for Decades

How do we know what is happening to life on Earth? NASA satellites play a vital role in gathering biodiversity data from a distance, often from orbit; this is what we call remote sensing. According to Turner, when satellite imagery is combined with airborne and in-situ or field data, it helps to show where plants and animals are living and thriving at a given time, allowing for long-term tracking of changes.

Dr. Laura Lorenzoni, program manager for NASA’s Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry Program, echoed the importance of sustained and detailed satellite measurements for predicting future changes. Lorenzoni and her colleagues are using remote-sensing and field data, together with models, to answer questions about how climate change is altering marine ecosystems.

NASA has also made a priority of researching impacts to biodiversity on land. For decades, scientists funded by NASA’s Biological Diversity Research Program and Ecological Forecasting Applications Program have been using satellites to track biodiversity and ecosystem changes and to help develop tools to aid in conservation. For instance, NASA-funded researchers are developing forecasting tools for managing wildlife migrations along the Yukon-to-Yellowstone corridor, and others are mapping changes in North American temperate forests due to disease and climate change.

Better Data for Hard-to-Reach Places

New remote-sensing technologies can help expand our view of the environment and how it’s changing. This includes the advancement of satellites to collect hyperspectral data, which identify an object’s or organism’s composition based on how it interacts with light. This means an oak tree leaf will look different from a pine tree leaf.

“Hyperspectral data will move us leaps and bounds in our understanding of biodiversity. It lets you see not just where vegetation is, but what it is, too,” said Dr. Allison Leidner, a conservation biologist and program scientist in NASA’s Earth Science Directorate. For example, instead of seeing just a green forest, scientists can identify that it is a forest of oak trees.

With the data, scientists can help identify how environmental changes impact different types of plants within ecosystems. This new insight can fill in missing information about how ecosystems are changing due to human actions — particularly in remote, hard-to-reach places — providing a more complete global picture.

NASA’s upcoming Earth System Observatory program will provide high-resolution open data to scientists for developing solutions that address both climate change and biodiversity losses. For example, the Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission aims to uncover how climate change is impacting phytoplankton, the organisms at the center of the marine food web. With its Ocean Color Instrument, the PACE satellite will provide new high-resolution views of this microscopic ocean life. With these data, scientists will be able to track the changing state of phytoplankton in different ocean basins and regions, which is important to understanding ocean biodiversity.

Although scientists do not have all the solutions yet, NASA’s current and upcoming missions provide or will provide critical insights into the effort to slow biodiversity loss. Through continued research and new technology, scientists worldwide are working to find solutions so we can enjoy birdsongs for generations to come.

In a new paper, published in the journal Palaeontology, a Bristol team of palaeobiologists used state-of-the-art statistical methods to perform a large-scale quantitative study, the first of its kind, on the locomotion of Mesozoic marine reptiles.

The researchers collected measurements from 125 fossilised skeletons, and used these to explore changes in swimming styles within lineages and through time, discovering that there was no explosive radiation at the beginning of the Mesozoic, but a gradual diversification of locomotory modes, which peaked in the Cretaceous period.

Lead author Dr Susana Gutarra of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences said: “Changes in anatomy in land-to-sea transitions are intimately linked to the evolution of swimming. For example, sea lions’ flippers have relatively short forearm and large hands, very different from the walking legs of their ancestors. The rich fossil record of Mesozoic marine reptiles provided great opportunity to study these transitions at a large scale.”

Co-author Beatrice Heighton, said: “We included measurements from living aquatic animals, such as otters, seals and turtles, of which we know their swimming behaviour. This is very important to provide a functional reference for the ancient species, with unknown swimming modes.”

In the aftermath of the end-Permian extinction, about 250 million years ago, various groups of reptiles became aquatic hunters, populating the early Mesozoic seas.

Co-author Dr Tom Stubbs said: “After this devastating event, there was a gradual diversification of locomotory modes, which contrasts with the rapid radiation described previously for feeding strategies. This is fascinating because it suggests a ‘head-first’ pattern of evolution in certain lineages.”

This paper sheds light into the swimming of specific groups. Dr Ben Moon explained: “Ichthyosaurs were highly specialised for aquatic locomotion from very early in their evolution. This includes their close relatives, the hupehsuchians, which had a morphology unlike any other known aquatic tetrapod. Further, we see overlap between mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, which is indicative that mosasaurs evolved a swimming mode by oscillating flukes, different from the eel-like body undulation suggested in the past.

“In contrast, we don’t find evidence of convergence between ichthyosaurs and metriorhynchids (the highly aquatic crocodyliform thalattosuchians). This group retained quite primitive-looking hindlimbs, which seems incompatible with swimming by fluke oscillation.”

This study also delves into the evolution of size, a feature related to locomotion, animal physiology and ocean productivity. Professor Mike Benton said: “We know that transition to life in water is usually accompanied by an increase in body mass, as seen in cetaceans, and one of our previous studies shows that large sizes benefit aquatic animals in reducing the mass-specific costs of drag. Thus, it was essential to explore this trait in the wider ensemble of Mesozoic marine reptiles.”

Dr Gutarra added: “Body size follows a similar trend to the diversification of locomotory modes, and the widest spread of body size also occurred in the Cretaceous, confirming a strong connection between the two. The rate of increase and the maximum limits to body size seems to vary a lot between groups. This is a fascinating observation. We need to explore further what factors influence and limit the increase in body mass in each group.”

This research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the European Research Council (ERC).

Iron-rich layers formed in ancient sediments were used to narrow down when an area dried out in response to changes in climate, such as the dramatic decline of groundwater in southern Australia.

These ‘relics of drying’ suggest the Nullarbor drastically shifted to dry conditions between 2.4 and 2.7 million years ago, uncovering how these environmental changes were key in shaping Australia’s diverse flora and fauna.

Lead author Dr Maximilian Dröllner, from the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said defining the timing of climate change in ancient landscapes had proved challenging for geoscientists around the world.

“Almost half of the Earth’s land surfaces are considered drylands, and they host about three billion people,” Dr Dröllner said.

“Changes to these arid areas can impact both our society and regional biodiversity in profound ways and aridification has been instrumental in shaping the landscapes and ecosystems we see today.”

Determining when climate events occurred in arid areas has been a difficult task for geoscientists, with researchers relying on indirect observations, such as marine sediments in neighbouring areas.

Co-author Associate Professor Milo Barham, also from Curtin’s Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, said directly measuring products of the drying of landscapes can provide a much clearer timeframe.

“The amount of helium trapped in these iron-rich horizons can be used to determine when they were formed,” Associate Professor Barham said.

“Exposing these ‘relics’ of drying to a tiny laser releases helium, which we can measure to constrain the timing of these dramatic environmental responses to Earth’s climate history.”

Determining when these events occurred can help explain how they impacted the biodiversity of the area and, particularly in the case of southern Australia, provides a timeframe for the evolution of several native species.

“The drying of Australia’s interior separated the common ancestors of many species that once roamed freely across Australia,” Dr Dröllner said.

“This separation led to the independent evolution of these isolated populations on the east and west coasts, eventually resulting in distinct species or sister species.”

“Today we observe many examples of sister species of birds, insects, and plants that have common ancestors but now live thousands of kilometres apart, separated by environmental barriers created through ancient climate change.”

NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives, and safeguard our future. This Earth Day, you can join us in person and online to see how our fleet of satellites, our airborne campaigns, and our ground-based observations help us monitor the planet’s vital signs and share them with scientists and citizens around the world.

On April 20 and 21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern Time, NASA will host an in-person Earth Day celebration at Union Station in Washington, D.C. The event will include 20 hands-on activities and an opportunity to learn about the many ways NASA conducts Earth science.

Online, visitors can explore the connections between Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, forests, fields, cities, ice caps, and climate through videos and interactive science content, a kid-friendly fun zone, a scavenger hunt, and hundreds of downloadable resources. Some content will be available in Spanish.

NASA’s in-person and virtual Earth Day events are free and open to the public. To participate online, visit go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceNow.

Also on April 20, from 1 to 3 p.m. ET, NASA will hold two live webinars: Discover Your World and Beyond & Earth Day Celebration. Register at go.nasa.gov/NASAScienceNow to attend.

If you are an educator, register your class to learn what it’s like to be a NASA polar scientist during a special Earth Day online event. To find more NASA activities for your classroom, check out the agency’s page on Microsoft Flip.

Keep an eye on NASA Earth’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels this week for:

• A conversation between NASA Chief Scientist Dr. Katherine Calvin and Apollo 8 Astronaut William “Bill” Anders about the iconic Earthrise photograph.
• A Q&A between rapper Post Malone and NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Warren “Woody” Hoburg, who are currently living aboard the International Space Station.
• Earth Inside and Out: A Special Earth Day Celebration — On April 20 at 2 p.m., join scientists from NASA centers across the U.S. and a space station astronaut for this special event in partnership with Crayola Education, featuring student art from Crayola’s 2023 Creativity Week.

Finally, do you want to get involved with some real NASA science? Through the agency’s citizen science projects, volunteers have helped make thousands of important scientific observations and some discoveries. More than 400 NASA citizen scientists have even been named as co-authors on peer-reviewed scientific publications. To get involved, join one of NASA’s Citizen Science programs or download the GLOBE Observer App to start your own journey of discovery. Projects are open to everyone around the world, not limited to U.S. citizens or residents.

NASA’s innovative tools and data inform decision-makers around the world as they monitor and manage the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the challenges faced by communities in the path of severe weather. NASA partners with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, state and local governments, and international organizations to provide information on climate change and other environmental challenges. But NASA is also committed to making data accessible, collaborative, inclusive, and transparent for everyone from the scientist and student to the city manager and citizen — an approach known as “open science.”

To learn more about NASA’s Earth Day activities, visit www.nasa.gov/earth-day-2023.

News Media Contact

Kathryn Cawdrey,

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

[email protected]

Earth911 is honoring the 52 years of Earth Day with 52 Actions for the Earth. Each week through Earth Day 2023, we will share an action you can take to invest in the Earth and make your life more sustainable. Too often, sustainability is framed as an extra thing to do. But sustainability is not an extra step, it’s how you take every step. This week, you can invest in the Earth by learning how to shop more sustainably.

Action: Learn To Shop More Sustainably

Sustainable Shopping

Whatever you are shopping for, sustainable shopping starts in your head. Before you make any specific purchase, ask yourself four questions to evaluate your decision. A little information goes a long way towards helping you shop your values. Learn about different certification systems. What is TCO-certified? What does it mean for a home to be LEED certified? Are all cruelty-free labels equal?

Before making large purchases, study Earth911’s buyers guides to inform your choices for appliances and home improvements from mattresses to patio pavers and refrigerators. It also makes sense to pay particular attention to small purchases you make frequently. Little things like paper towels can really add up over time. Earth911’s greener shopping articles focus deeply on individual items from coffee to shampoo. And of course, we can all learn how to produce less plastic pollution. Food and clothing are two purchase categories that can have an outsized impact.

Clothes

The environmental impact of the textile and fashion industry is shocking. Consumers who quit fast fashion and commit to building a more sustainable wardrobe can make a difference. EarthDay.org’s sustainable shopping toolkit provides good guidelines: shop less, shop locally and secondhand. Prioritize natural fibers over synthetics, and choose organic when you can. Learn how to care for your clothes so they last a long time, and swap or sell them if you can’t keep them until they wear out.

Food

The two biggest steps people can take to reduce their foodprint are to eliminate animal products from their diet and reduce food waste. Even if you’re not ready to quit meat, you can move towards a plant-based diet through meatless Mondays or meatless breakfast. Eating less meat not only cuts your climate emissions, it can also improve your physical and mental health.

There are countless ways to reduce food waste, which benefits your budget as well as the environment. Use helpful apps and learn how meal planning keeps you from buying too much while cooking ahead ensures you use what you buy. Learn how to store produce so it keeps longer, and how to use leftovers to further reduce food waste.

How You Shop

A lot of sustainable shopping is about choosing to buy less and choosing more sustainable products. But you can further reduce your consumer footprint by looking at the “how” of your shopping habits. Carrying reusable shopping bags is an obvious first step. Figure out when it’s better to shop online vs in person and always try to avoid online returns; learn whether to have your groceries delivered; and consider how you get to the store and how many trips you take.

No matter how much or how little you shop, you can do it more sustainably. Let this be the week you learn how.