Cary EcoPicks

Rock Salt lowers the temperature at which water freezes, so it's been widely used in wintertime to prevent our roads from icing up. It's a boon for safety but there are environmental consequences.

In the winter, rock salt is routinely spread on our roads to keep them free of ice. We now know that the rock salt can enter into our soil, groundwater, rivers and streams and can stay there year-round, effecting the ecosystem and people.

The effects of rock salt on streams are most dramatic in streams in urban areas. These would be streams in proximity to roads The roads would receive a lot of rock salt and eventually as that dissolves, it moves on into the streams.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the global authority for determining species' vulnerability in the face of threats such as habitat loss and climate change. How widely a species can be found – its geographic range – is a key indicator used by the IUCN to assign an appropriate conservation status.

Why is it that diseases emerge from some species and not from others? Is it possible to predict outbreaks of infectious diseases before they occur?

A wide range of drugs - everything from antibiotics to antihistamines, are showing in our rivers, streams and water supply and it is having an impact on our environment. What can we do about it?

According to the Center for Disease Control, there are over 300,000 new cases of Lyme Disease each year in the United States. Is there a way to control its spread?

The summer following a good mouse year, which is two summers following a good acorn year, we have found are the riskiest years for human exposure to Lyme.

Scientists are calling for the creation of a global early warning system for infectious diseases. Such a system would use computer models to tap into environmental, epidemiological, and molecular data – gathering the intelligence needed to forecast where disease risk is high.

When it comes to addressing infectious disease, we have a short attention span. In the case of Zika, the World Health Organization declared a public health emergency based on a strong association between Zika infection and microcephaly in newborns.