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Thirteen Nicholas School of the Environment undergraduate students have earned Graduation with Distinction honors for 2022.

Seven 2022 Master of Environmental Management (MEM) graduates of 91��������’s Nicholas School of the Environment share this year’s Virlis L. Fischer Memorial Award for academic achievement.

Human activities such as marsh draining for agriculture and logging are increasingly eating away at saltwater and freshwater wetlands that cover only 1% of Earth’s surface but store more than 20% of all the climate-warming carbon dioxide absorbed by ecosystems worldwide. A new study published May 5 in Science by a team of Dutch, American and German scientists shows that it’s not too late to reverse the losses.

A forest’s ability to regenerate after devastating wildfires, droughts or other disturbances depends largely on seed production. Findings from two new studies led by 91�������� researchers could boost recovery and replanting after these disasters by providing foresters with new guidance on which tree species produce more seeds and how their productivity can vary from location to location.

With a highly contagious avian flu killing millions of birds across a nation still coping with the COVID-19 pandemic, weary residents may not want to hear that climate change is greatly increasing the risk of new disease outbreaks.

Even the king cobra is “vulnerable.” More than 1 in 5 species of reptiles worldwide are threatened with extinction, according to a comprehensive new assessment of thousands of species published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

The rapid industrialization of our oceans is bringing new challenges—but also new opportunities—for promoting sustainable economic growth while protecting vulnerable communities and environments and enhancing their climate resilience. That was the takeaway of the inaugural Blue Economy Summit, a student-led conference hosted by the Oceans@Duke Student Cabinet on March 18 and 19.

The Northeast’s cap-and-trade program has installed its keystone. Now, the question is how long it will stay in place.

Holly Emerson, a corporate sustainability professional with nearly 20 years’ experience at companies including Johnson Controls, Ingersoll Rand, and Trane Technologies, has joined the Nicholas School of the Environment as executive-in-residence for the Master of Environmental Management (MEM) program in Business & Environment.

PhD student Renata Poulton Kamakura has been working with Duke Landscape Services and undergraduate students in the Theory and Applications of Sustainability (ENV 245) course to determine how the more than 17,000 trees on the 91�������� campus benefit sustainability—including their effect on carbon sequestration and stormwater mitigation.

President Joe Biden is taking steps to restore national forests that have been devastated by wildfires, drought and blight, using an Earth Day visit to Seattle to sign an executive order protecting some of the nation’s largest and oldest trees.

With climate change, plastic pollution and a potential sixth mass extinction, humanity has made some incredible messes in the world. But when people, political factions and nations have pulled together, they have also cleaned up some of those human-caused environmental problems, including healing the ozone hole, clearing perpetually smoggy air and saving many species from the brink of extinction.

When it comes to making communities and businesses greener, re-thinking the “little” stuff we often take for granted—like zoning, logistics and cement—can yield big benefits.

‘Our Great National Parks’ overly idealizes U.S. conservation efforts and gives a mealymouthed call to climate action

Doctoral students Ningjie Hu and Graden Froese will receive this year’s Dean’s Awards for Outstanding Graduate Student Manuscript.