Questions tagged [environment]
Referring to the surrounding ecosystem of the planet Earth, its natural mechanisms and balances, and study of the effects of human interaction with it.
197 questions
14 votes
1 answer
2k views
Are building paints the leading source of microplastics in the environment?
The 2025 French documentary Homo Plasticus, available on the German/French TV station arte is about microplastics found in the human body. It states the following (at about 10:50): The origins of ...
- 426
14 votes
1 answer
775 views
Was the concept of ecological or carbon footprint invented by fossil fuel PR to shift the blame for climate change?
Several sources claim that the concept of an ecological footprint or carbon footprint was invented by fossil fuel lobbyists to shift the responsibility for climate change from big oil to private ...
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5 votes
1 answer
775 views
Does running an NLP model generate 300 tonnes of CO₂?
The AI critic Kate Crawford writes in her book The Atlas of AI: With a focus on trying to understand the carbon footprint of natural language processing (NLP) models, they began to sketch out ...
- 235
6 votes
1 answer
968 views
Do car tires create more pollution than exhaust fumes?
The article Exhaust fumes don't pollute nearly as much as this part of a car claims that tires cause more pollution than exhaust fumes. Car tires are worse for the environment than exhaust fumes In ...
- 7,587
18 votes
2 answers
5k views
Are global wildfires decreasing?
According to the World Health Organization, Climate change is directly contributing to humanitarian emergencies from heatwaves, wildfires, floods, tropical storms and hurricanes and they are ...
- 1,659
6 votes
2 answers
4k views
Has Azerbaijan "not had any environmental activist initiatives for the past decade"?
A long article about the Azerbaijani blockade of the (now former) Lachin corridor claims that: Azerbaijan is an authoritarian country that has not had any environmental activist initiatives for the ...
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33 votes
2 answers
11k views
Is there an increase in whale deaths due to windfarms?
During a recent speech in North Carolina, Donald Trump blamed offshore wind farms for the rise in whale deaths. Trump made the remarks about offshore wind’s possible link to the surge in baleen whale ...
- 2,157
16 votes
2 answers
2k views
Do lost people tend to unintentionally walk in circles?
Is it fact/myth that when you get lost in the wilderness, you go round in circles? Common belief has it that people who get lost in unfamiliar terrain often end up walking in circles. Although ...
- 283
12 votes
1 answer
1k views
Is the honey bee apocalypse real?
In 2013 Time magazine wrote A World Without Bees: The Price We’ll Pay If We Don’t Figure Out What’s Killing the Honeybee. In 2021 New York Post writes Why the honey bee ‘apocalypse’ is based on a ...
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4 votes
5 answers
3k views
Was the 2023 Ohio train derailment the 'worst environmental disaster in US history'?
According to Impact Nottingham: East Palestine, Ohio: Exploring The Worst Environmental Disaster in the History of the USA On 3rd February 2023, a freight train carrying various potentially hazardous ...
- 10.3k
10 votes
1 answer
810 views
Would covering 10% of hydro-power reservoirs with solar panels generate as much power as fossil-fuel plants worldwide?
This article in the journal Nature, claims that: Covering 10% of the world’s hydropower reservoirs with ‘floatovoltaics’ would install as much electrical capacity as is currently available for fossil-...
- 3,071
38 votes
1 answer
11k views
Does flying a small GA aircraft use less fuel than driving the same distance by car?
This is a notable claim by Friedrich Merz, head of the CDU party and a member of the German parliament: „Ich bereue nicht, dass ich zur Hochzeit von Christian Lindner geflogen bin. Um es mal auf den ...
- 2,112
9 votes
1 answer
673 views
Is the equivalent of 2000 American football fields lost every hour due to drought and desertification?
BBC states the following Approximately 12 million hectares (46,000 sq miles) are lost around the world each year as a direct consequence of drought and desertification. That's the equivalent of 2,000 ...
- 93
46 votes
2 answers
9k views
Was plastic from a seaplane shot down in 1944 recently found in an albatross stomach?
The environmentalist website Ocean Sentry makes the claim (citing Calgary Herald) that: The massive clockwise North Pacific Gyre is carrying plastic that is over 50 years old. Last year, plastic ...
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18 votes
1 answer
1k views
Are more than a billion umbrellas thrown away every year?
I own a Blunt umbrella. From their and other umbrella sites, there is a claim that over a billion umbrellas are thrown away every year. Blunt claims it on their website Finisterre claims it Senz ...
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