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Viewing cat videos or photos boosts feelings of energy and positive emotions (hope, happiness, contentment) and decreases negative emotions (anxiety, annoyance, sadness, guilt). However, viewing more cat videos was also associated with less emotional stability.

Computers in Human Behavior

Flowers are changing their petal colors in response to increasing temperatures and loss of the ozone layer, which may impact pollination by wildlife.

Environment

Across North America, climate change is intensifying pollen seasons which start earlier, last longer, and have higher pollen concentrations than 30 years ago. This can be a greater trigger for allergy and asthma symptoms.

PNAS
APnews

In the two month period around the US' withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, Twitter bots were responsible for about 25% of tweets about climate change, and were more likely than human users to tweet about climate denial research.

Systemic racism and structural inequalities reduce biodiversity in low-income and racial minority neighborhoods compared to affluent communities.

Environment

Four species of Pacific salmon in Alaska are decreasing in size due to climate change and competition for food at sea, with high risks for the environment and salmon-dependent communities.

Environment

Long-term exposure to air pollution, especially ground-level ozone, can accelerate the progression of emphysema, a disease that causes damage to the lungs.

JAMA
UWnews

Eating more fruits and vegetables, optimally two servings of fruit and three servings of veggies per day, is associated with lower mortality in adults.

Pregnant women with COVID-19 were not more likely to have preterm birth, severe preeclampsia (high blood pressure during pregnancy), or deliver by C-section than pregnant women without COVID-19.

Health

Noise from human activities at sea such as shipping traffic, resource exploration, and construction damages marine animals’ hearing, changing their physiology and behavior.

Environment