This past week brought the first real taste of spring or maybe even summer weather. Along with the warmth came something less desirable -- air quality alerts. From Connecticut to southern Maine, ozone levels mid-week rose to what the EPA considers unhealthy for those with asthma or other lung problems.

New York State has revived a climate science committee that the Trump administration let go last summer. The group’s objective is to help local and regional officials to get the information they need to prepare and respond to impacts like heat waves, droughts, and flooding. And they’re building a network of dozens of organizations to get the job done without the federal government’s involvement.

Hawaii is poised become the first state to ban certain sunscreens – not because they are bad for people necessarily, but because they’ve been implicated in the decline of coral reefs. The ban specifically targets sunscreens that contain two chemicals – oxybenzone and octinoxate. The bill is awaiting the governor’s signature. When people swim in the ocean, the sunscreen washes off and creates a toxic soup for corals, according to Craig Downs, the executive director of the non-profit research and

A new proposed rule would bar EPA from considering scientific studies that don’t release their data publicly or that haven’t been independently verified. EPA administrator Scott Pruitt says the rule would increase transparency, strengthen the science behind EPA regulations, and end the era of ‘secret science.’ But the rule has prompted strong condemnation from the science community.

Children of the Cold War grew up ducking under their desks to practice for the possibility of a nuclear attack. Now, nine out of ten public schools hold lockdown drills to prepare for an active shooter scenario. One psychiatrist wonders if we know enough about the long-term mental health effects of forcing kids to confront, even act out, these violent and deadly threats.

A new survey finds that seventy percent of Americans think climate change is happening, and nearly sixty percent understand that it is largely human-caused. That puts us back approximately where we were ten years ago, before politics and economics eroded public acceptance of climate change.

Academics make up almost a sixth of the United Auto Workers’ union members. Teaching and research assistants at Harvard this month became the latest (and one of the largest) student groups to join the UAW. Meanwhile, graduate students at Columbia University went on strike last week to demand the university recognize their union.

Many long-time Cape Codders would be surprised to learn that there is coral growing along Cape Cod’s shores – no big reefs, just hearty chunks of coral that can survive water temperatures close to freezing.

Japanese scientists announced this past week that they had not only discovered bacteria that naturally digest the PET plastic used to make many water bottles, they had also genetically modified them to make them better at breaking down plastic. Headlines made it seem like our plastic pollution woes were over.

Forty thousand years ago, a massive volcanic eruption in southern Italy devastated what today is Europe. And yet, the culture of the early humans who lived there persisted. Now, archeologists say the key was long-distance trade and social networking.