Warren Cornwall

Bellingham

Contributing Correspondent, Science Magazine at Freelance

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

Articles

Ambitious project to revive Louisiana coastline runs aground

1 week 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 week 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 week 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 week 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 week 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.
Faced with punishing heatwaves, help for kelp may come from protecting marine predators.

1 week ago | anthropocenemagazine.org | Warren Cornwall

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing commercial fishing inside nearly 1.3 million square kilometers of protected waters in the Pacific Ocean. The order, titled “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific,” stated that “appropriately managed commercial fishing” wouldn’t harm the marine reserve.
How much climate damage do polluters actually cause? New method comes up with price tag

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

In the wake of devastating floods, Vermont lawmakers last year passed legislation making fossil fuel producers liable for damages from natural disasters supercharged by their greenhouse gas emissions. The so-called Climate Superfund Law—named after the federal law that forces industries to pay to clean up historic chemical pollution—was the first of its kind in the nation. But so far, no company has had to pay a penny under Vermont’s law.
Trump wants to log more forests. Will it really help prevent wildfires?

3 weeks ago | treefrogcreative.ca | Warren Cornwall |Kevin Mason |Kelly McCloskey |Robert McKellar

Trump wants to log more forests. Will it really help prevent wildfires? By Warren Cornwall Science Magazine April 17, 2025 Category: Forestry Region: United States …Many scientists agree that much of the nation’s federal forests—particularly in the West—are in dire condition.
U.S. climate data websites go dark

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

U.S. scientists, state policymakers, farmers, and others who depend on up-to-date climate data on Thursday confronted an information blackout from federal regional climate centers across much of the country. “Unfortunately, all data and services offered under the base contract, including this website, will be unavailable unless and until funding is resumed,” a statement on the Southern Regional Climate Center’s website read.
Trump wants to log more forests. Will it really help prevent wildfires?

3 weeks ago | science.org | Warren Cornwall

When the saws went silent in January at the Malheur Lumber sawmill in remote eastern Oregon, it marked a blow to both the local economy and to a yearslong effort to make surrounding forests more resistant to wildfires. The mill’s closure has left conservationists and loggers alike scrambling for a place to sell trees cut in the nearby Malheur National Forest, part of a model collaboration designed to provide both timber jobs and environmental benefits.