Warren Cornwall

Bellingham

Contributing Correspondent, Science Magazine at Freelance

Contributing correspondent, Science magazine. Freelance science and environment journalist.

Articles

To protect rainforests, do people need to be kept out?

1 week ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

In Panama, the best protection for keeping rainforests from disappearing hasn’t been putting them inside protected refuges. It’s been putting them in the hands of the region’s Indigenous tribes. In the two decades starting in 2000, just 3% of the roughly 19,000 square kilometers of Indigenous forestland was deforested.
Algae "perfume" fused with high-tech materials holds promise for growing coral

2 weeks ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

These days, coral reefs need all the help they can get. Underwater heatwaves and pollution have taken a toll on coral, whose carbonate exoskeletons are the foundation of some of the richest ocean ecosystems. More than 80% of the world’s reefs are currently in the middle of the largest mass bleaching event ever recorded. Global warming is expected to make the problem worse in the coming decades, threatening the existence of most of the world’s reefs.
To coax a replanted rainforest to be more like old growth, consider a termite transplant.

3 weeks ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

A forest, as anyone who spends time in one will know, is a lot more than just trees. These ecosystems support a massive number of different organisms living together in complex webs of interdependence. But when people try to regrow a forest, they often just plant trees. That single-minded focus might be slowing a return to the rhythms of growth and decay that shape natural forests.
Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

In February, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Rebekah Tromble launched a program to advise scientists and journalists targeted for intimidation and harassment. But she announced it quietly, fearing the very kind of attacks the initiative was meant to counter. “We were truly concerned that trying to draw too much attention to our work would jeopardize our funding,” says the George Washington University social scientist.
Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

In February, shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, Rebekah Tromble launched a program to advise scientists and journalists targeted for intimidation and harassment. But she announced it quietly, fearing the very kind of attacks the initiative was meant to counter. “We were truly concerned that trying to draw too much attention to our work would jeopardize our funding,” says the George Washington University social scientist.
Ambitious project to revive Louisiana coastline runs aground

1 month ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

On a steamy August morning in 2023, Louisiana officials gathered near swampy Barataria Bay to break ground on what was meant to be the $3 billion centerpiece of the campaign to save the state’s shrinking coastline. Then-Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, hefted a symbolic shovel full of dirt to mark the beginning of a 3.5-kilometer-long canal designed to siphon precious land-building mud from the Mississippi River to the sediment-starved bay.
What rhymes with “critically endangered”?

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

Scientists use all kinds of clues to piece together where endangered species once dwelled. They trace the origins of museum specimens, scrutinize old maps and scientists’ dusty notes, pick through DNA and . To map the historic home of the Yangtze finless porpoise, a group of researchers in China turned to a different sort of record: More than a thousand years of poetry. The creature’s Instagram-ready cuteness and aquatic acrobatics don’t just appeal to modern nature lovers, it turns out.
Clever new technique turns falling rain into renewable energy

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall |Sarah DeWeerdt |Emma Bryce

Solar panels don’t generate electricity when it is raining. But that doesn’t mean you have to give up on renewable electricity. Researchers have now found a way to generate clean power from rain drops. The new device, reported in the journal ACS Central Science, generates electricity by harnessing the energy of rain water as it moves through tiny tubes. The method could power up 12 LED lights in tests.
Sponge made from food scraps produces clean water from thin air

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall |Sarah DeWeerdt

A sponge-like gel made from food scraps and other natural materials can draw moisture from air even in dry conditions. The system, reported in the journal Advanced Materials, provides a sustainable way to produce drinkable water for low cost to address global water scarcity. Water has become a precious commodity in many parts of the world, a problem getting exacerbated by a warmer world and rising population.
When they created a reverse bounty for threatened species, scientists got the opposite outcome they wanted

1 month ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

Economic markets are a potent force when it comes to conservation. The quest for profits is a primary driver of today’s extinction crisis, from the black-market trade in rhino horns to the devastation of global rainforests in the pursuit of gold, lumber, and farmland. Conservationists have begun trying to harness these same powers in the name of protecting biodiversity, by creating financial incentives for people to protect the natural world rather than pillage it.