CLIMATE CHALLENGESControlled Burning of Natural Environments Could Help Offset Carbon Emissions Published 29 December 2021 Planting trees and suppressing wildfires do not necessarily maximize the carbon storage of natural ecosystems. A new study has found that prescribed burning can actually lock in or increase carbon in the soils of temperate forests, savannahs and grasslands. Planting trees

ENERGY SECURITYGermany Responds to Putin’s Weaponization of Russian Gas By Jo Harper Published 28 December 2021 Germany is pumping Russian gas back into Poland as Gazprom cuts supply to the EU. As Russia plays its hybrid war games with an increasingly divided EU, the new front appears to be the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. Yamal-Europe, Europe’s longest

EXTREMISMDOD Releases Report on Countering Extremist Activities Published 28 December 2021 DOD last week issued a report on addressing the challenge of extremist activities in the ranks. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that “We believe only a very few violate this oath by participating in extremist activities, but even the actions of a few

EARTHQUAKESThe Use of Earthquake Science for Assessing Risks to Gas Pipelines Published 28 December 2021 New study highlights the need to continue efforts to systematically quantify nationwide earthquake risk to gas pipelines in the United States, which manages the largest gas pipeline network in the world. A new study from the USGS in the ASCE–ASME Journal of

MISINFORMATIONWhat Will 2022 Bring in the Way of Misinformation on Social Media? 3 Experts Weigh In By Anjana Susarla, Dam Hee Kim, and Ethan Zuckerman Published 28 December 2021 At the end of 2020, it seemed hard to imagine a worse year for misinformation on social media, given the intensity of the presidential election and

PLANETARY SECURITYSimulation Models of Potential Asteroid Collisions Published 28 December 2021 An asteroid impact can be enough to ruin anyone’s day, but several small factors can make the difference between an out-of-this-world story and total annihilation. An asteroid impact can be enough to ruin anyone’s day, but several small factors can make the difference between an

WATER SECURITYRadioactive Contamination Is Creeping into Drinking Water Around the U.S. By Lynne Peeples Published 28 December 2021 As mining, fracking and other activities increase the levels of harmful isotopes in water supplies, health advocates call for tighter controls. This story is part of Ensia’s year-long investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series

OUR PICKSThe Most Dangerous Extremists | Terrorism & Surveillance, Searches, and Mental Illness | The Next Disaster Coming to the Great Plains, and more Published 28 December 2021 ·  World’s 20 Most Dangerous Extremists Revealed — Including UK-Based Anjem Choudary and Tommy Robinson ·  Tampa Terrorism Case Raises Questions of Surveillance, Searches, Mental Illness ·  Covid Lockdowns

CYBERSECURITYWhat Is Log4j? A Cybersecurity Expert Explains the Latest Internet Vulnerability, How Bad It Is and What’s at Stake By Santiago Torres-Arias Published 24 December 2021 Log4Shell, an internet vulnerability that affects millions of computers, involves an obscure but nearly ubiquitous piece of software, Log4j. So what is this humble piece of internet infrastructure, how

ARGUMENT: HYBRID DOMESTIC EXTREMISTSBlurry Ideologies and Strange Coalitions: The Evolving Landscape of Domestic Extremism Published 24 December 2021 Students of extremism and domestic terrorism have noticed an intriguing phenomenon: the convergence of far right and far left extremists and the breakdown of old ideological walls. Far-right extremists have valorized the Unabomber and praised the Taliban;