Right now, a handful of motivated Fort Collins citizens are doing something a little out of the ordinary. They’re collecting cutting-edge scientific data from their backyards that may soon help NASA create maps of global air pollution.

Humans have been altering natural waterways for centuries, but only in the last several decades have dams raised ecological concerns.N. LeRoy Poff, professor of biology at Colorado State University, studies the ecological impact to rivers from human-caused changes, such as dam building, and how these modified river systems can be managed for resilience.

Six major hurricanes that engulfed the Atlantic Basin in 2017 were a devastating reminder of the vulnerability of coastal communities, where more than half the U.S. population resides.

When people see smoke on the horizon, what do they do? Besides (hopefully) calling fire authorities, they post to social media, of course.The fact that people reliably flock to social media to discuss smoke and fire was the inspiration for a new study by Colorado State University atmospheric scientists. Driven to innovate ways to improve the air we breathe, the scientists have shown that social media, Facebook in this case, could prove a powerful tool.

Over the past few years, a large fracture has grown across a large floating ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula. The world is watching the ice shelf, now poised to break off an iceberg the size of Delaware into the ocean.It’s not a new phenomenon; this “thumb” of Antarctica, which juts out into the stormy Southern Ocean, has lost more than 28,000 square kilometers of floating ice — almost as large as Massachusetts — over the past half-century. This has included the complete disintegration of four ice shelves, the floating extensions of glaciers.

It turns out bird poop helps cool the Arctic.That’s according to new research from Colorado State University atmospheric scientists, who are working to better understand key components of Arctic climate systems.

President Obama traveled to Louisiana Sunday to assure coastal residents that the government is doing all it can to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — he had little good news to offer, though. Obama flew over the marshes of Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish, where rich oyster and shrimp beds are jeopardized by the spill. Oil continues to flow out of control from a wellhead nearly a mile below the surface of the Gulf, and Obama warned it could keep flowing for a long time. “I think the American people are aware, certainly the folks down in the Gulf are aware that we’re dealing with a massive and potentially unprecedented environmental disaster,” Obama said. The president said crews are using the most advanced technology to try to stop the leak, but efforts to cap the well have so far been unsuccessful.