Author: Division on Earth and Life Studies

Potential health effects from chemicals that disrupt endocrine function pose an environmental health concern because of their ability to interfere ...

The United States embarked on bold polices to enhance its food and agricultural system during the last half of the 19th century, investing first in...

Hurricane- and coastal-storm-related losses have increased substantially during the past century, largely due to increases in population and develo...

Genetically engineered (GE) crops were first introduced commercially in the 1990s. After two decades of production, some groups and individuals rem...

In 1999 the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released a landmark report, Our Common Journey: A Transition toward Sustainab...

Climate theory dictates that core elements of the climate system, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, and reservoirs of atmospheric and so...

The United States and the world face serious threats to nuclear stability and peace, now and in the coming decades. Within the nuclear arena, U.S. ...

People spend the vast majority of their time inside their homes and other indoor environments where they are exposed to a wide range of chemicals f...

The Everglades ecosystem is vast, stretching more than 200 miles from Orlando to Florida Bay, and Everglades National Park is but a part located at...

The Environmental Protection Agency's estimate of the costs associated with implementing numeric nutrient criteria in Florida's waterways was signi...

The ocean is a fundamental component of the earth's biosphere. It covers roughly 70 percent of Earth's surface and plays a pivotal role in the cycl...

Combustion has provided society with most of its energy needs for millenia, from igniting the fires of cave dwellers to propelling the rockets that...

People are constantly changing the land surface through construction, agriculture, energy production, and other activities. Changes both in how lan...

During the last decade, national and international scientific organizations have become increasingly engaged in considering how to respond to the b...

It is critical that we increase public knowledge and understanding of science and technology issues through formal and informal learning for the Un...

The world's ocean has already experienced a 30% rise in acidity since the industrial revolution, with acidity expected to rise 100 to 150% over pre...

Energy and mineral resources are essential for the nation's fundamental functions, its economy, and security. Nonfuel minerals are essential for th...

For thousands of years, the underground has provided humans refuge, useful resources, physical support for surface structures, and a place for spir...

Lead is a ubiquitous metal in the environment, and its adverse effects on human health are well documented. Lead interacts at multiple cellular sit...

In May 2012, the National Park Service (NPS) asked the National Research Council to conduct a scientific review of a Draft Environmental Impact St...

From the use of personal products to our consumption of food, water, and air, people are exposed to a wide array of agents each daymany with the po...

Scientific evidence shows that most glaciers in South Asia's Hindu Kush Himalayan region are retreating, but the consequences for the region's wate...

Climate is changing, forced out of the range of the past million years by levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not seen in the Earth...

Many factors contribute to variability in Earth's climate on a range of timescales, from seasons to decades. Natural climate variability arises fro...

Systematic review - a scientific investigation that focuses on a specific question and uses explicit, prespecified scientific methods to identify,...

The U.S. Gulf Coast provides a valuable setting to study deeply connected natural and human interactions and feedbacks that have led to a complex, ...

Water of appropriate quantity and quality is essential for drinking, sanitation, and food, energy, and industrial production for any society and is...

Exposures at low doses of radiation, generally taken to mean doses below 100 millisieverts, are of primary interest for setting standards for prote...

The extraction of mineral resources provides the raw materials necessary to produce the products and technologies on which the global economy depen...

The United States is an important food producer globally, in part because of its abundance of agriculturally productive soils. However, management ...

The ocean is central to the health of the planet and the well-being of human societies, but ongoing depletion, disruption, and pollution threaten i...

Uranium mining in the Commonwealth of Virginia has been prohibited since 1982 by a state moratorium, although approval for restricted uranium explo...

Aquaculture now supplies half of the seafood and fisheries products consumed worldwide and is gaining international significance as a source of foo...

Since 1944, the National Research Council has published 10 editions of the Nutrient Requirements of Swine. This reference has guided nutritionists ...

New research opportunities to advance hydrologic sciences promise a better understanding of the role of water in the Earth system that could help i...