This year has obviously been an incredibly challenging year, with the coronavirus pandemic, job loses, and a long-overdue reckoning with systematic racism in the United States, and at UCS. Through it all, though, there were some signs of progress related to clean energy in the Midwest. Read more >

Clean Energy 2020 Year in Review: Midwest Progress
December 17, 2020 10:06 AM EDT

Pollution, Hurricanes, and the Pandemic Spell Trouble for Gulf Shrimp and Seafood Industries
August 4, 2020 6:16 PM EDT
Today researchers announced the size of the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, the official measurement NOAA uses to track its size year over year. This comes on the heels of bad news from another NOAA report indicating that the volume of Gulf shrimp landings in June 2020 was the lowest ever recorded. Read more >

Reviving the Gulf Dead Zone Is Worth it: Our New Report Shows the Benefits of Action
June 29, 2020 1:09 PM EDT
Earlier this month, NOAA forecast that this summer in the Gulf of Mexico an area the size of Delaware and Connecticut combined would have so little oxygen that marine life flees from it or dies in it. In 2017, this “dead zone” was the size of New Jersey, the largest one ever recorded. Read more >

Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture in the Midwest
March 3, 2020 10:00 AM EDT
I spoke with UCS Science Network Member, Dr. Ursula Melissa Ruiz Vera, to hear more about her research regarding the impacts of elevated CO2 combined with increases in temperature on the photosynthesis, development, and productivity of today’s most important Midwest crops, soybeans and maize. Read more >

La contaminación del aire causada por los vehículos en Illinois es injusta, y no tiene porqué serlo
February 19, 2020 3:11 PM EDT
Los autos, camiones y buses son fuentes significativas de contaminación del aire en Illinois. Pero, ¿cuanta de esta contaminación es atribuible a estos vehículos?, y ¿quiénes están expuestos a ella?
Para ayudarme a responder esta pregunta, he usado un modelo computarizado para estimar la cantidad de partículas finas de materia que causan la contaminación del aire (conocida como PM2.5) que resulta del uso de vehículos en carretera (autos, camiones y buses.) Read more >