Potential Crisis in Environmental Health Research
A potential crisis looms with the loss of environmental health research due to the federal government canceling and scaling back funding.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins University, America's First Research University, worry about the health and economic consequences for society.
"Baltimore is sinking, and the sea is rising,"
said Benjamin Zaitchik, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences, on a drizzly, late-summer day in his office.
Zaitchik explained that in Baltimore,
- excessive rainwater pours into an aging infrastructure
- underground water-flow channels are unknown and complicated
- the soil doesn't stay frozen as long in January
- it rains much more than it snows
Author's summary: Funding cuts threaten environmental health research.