When scientists talk about climate change, they tend to look at change to the climate caused by “natural factors” or by “human activities.” This is because there are factors that create change in climate that are natural - the cyclical melting and refreezing of sea ice, for example. The problem with the second term is [...]
Author: Ella Abbott
Stratton community members disapprove of neighboring power plant closing
Written by Ella Abbott and Ray Padilla Two and a half hours southeast of Kent, we found ourselves in Steubenville, Ohio — one of two stops to really understand what it’s like to live near a coal fired power plant. It was a warm and sunny Saturday in September. We both had never ventured down [...]
Four questions to ask about air quality alerts
Illustration by Ella Abbott. Every once in a while I get an alert to my phone from one news source or another about an air quality alert. Being from Cleveland, I typically get the notifications from cleveland.com and they usually increase during the summer months. Even no longer living in Cleveland, those alerts could be [...]
Let’s Talk About Acid Rain…
All rain is acidic. No, really. It works like this; As rain falls to the earth it picks up carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which creates carbonic acid. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “normal, clean rain has a pH value of between 5.0 and 5.5.” An object’s pH value measures how acidic it [...]
