Top 100 Environmental Science Project Topics

Table of contents

  • 1 Climate Change
  • 2 Renewable Energy
  • 3 Urban Ecology
  • 4 Land and Water Use
  • 5 Pollution
  • 6 Environmental Science Topics for College Students
  • 7 Energy Resources and Consumption
  • 8 Population
  • 9 Noise and Light Pollution
  • 10.1 Conclusion

With the environment and global warming in its current predicament, it’s no surprise that environmental science job opportunities will be on the rise in the very near future.

With the environment and global warming in its current predicament, it’s no surprise that environmental science job opportunities will be on the rise in the very near future. Therefore, so are the numbers of students pursuing studies in this field. The last four decades have seen huge changes in the rate of global warming and so more than ever before, we need people to study topics in environmental science.

For anyone majoring in environmental science, anyone needing to write  environmental studies project topics for a science course, or essay writer who is working on topical essays this comprehensive article will talk you through the top ten project topics to pursue. For each project topic, we’ll give you ten ideas.

Climate Change

There’ll always be an environment, but it’s looking more and more likely that it won’t be like our current one in the future. With this in mind, here are the top ten environmental project topics for college students on climate change:

  • Is global warming a natural phenomenon?
  • The politicization of global warming.
  • How do eddy covariance towers work?
  • Planetary tilt – does it affect global warming?
  • The differences between climate change and the greenhouse effect.
  • Why is carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas?
  • How do changes to weather patterns affect the Earth’s climate?
  • The concept of polar amplification.
  • The barriers to climate change responses.
  • The “heat island” effect.

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Renewable Energy

Our advances through the industrial revolution and the use of fossil fuels are now coming back to bite us. Here are ten environmental topics for project on renewable energy:

  • The pros and cons of hydropower.
  • Solar energy and pollution.
  • Solar energy to help the economy.
  • Geothermal energy: an unlikely major energy source?
  • The problems caused by renewable energies.
  • Understanding geothermal energy.
  • Are hydrogen fuel cells a viable alternative?
  • The advantages and disadvantages of solar power.
  • Transporting geothermal energy: a study.
  • The challenges of large-scale biomass energy use.

Urban Ecology

Urban ecology is an important consideration for environmental science projects for college students who are eager to pay for essay to receive high grades for assignments. When we study the environment, we tend to think of green spaces and rural lands, but urban ecology is important too. As such, here are ten environmental science project ideas on this topic:

  • How do unequal urban planning and greenspace distribution affect temperatures in a city?
  • How does urbanization affect surrounding rural areas?
  • How is the local climate affected by buildings and pavements?
  • What is the urban heat island effect?
  • How are water sources affected by urbanization?
  • How has human development affected our green spaces?
  • How is social identity linked to urbanization?
  • What impact does transport have on rural locations?
  • How can the natural environment be integrated into urban planning and design projects?
  • What is water harvesting?

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Land and Water Use

When humans use natural resources, they also disrupt natural ecosystems. This is an important area of study as we try to claw back and save some of the world’s resources from being entirely depleted. Here are ten interesting  environment related topics for project on this subject:

  • How have overfishing and non-sustainable fishing methods affected our oceans?
  • How does using water for irrigation affect natural ecosystems?
  • The impacts of different societies’ ecological footprints in terms of waste production and resource demands.
  • How can we mitigate deforestation?
  • An analysis of The Green Revolution.
  • The impact of salt application to streams.
  • How does using an ANN (artificial neural network) for rainfall-runoff affect ecosystems?
  • How do land-use changes impact urban runoff?
  • Relationships between water quality, land use and land use change.
  • Land use effects on lake water quality.

Pollution is one of the planet and humanity’s worst enemies. Agriculture, transportation, and industry can cause horrific environmental catastrophes. Check out the possible environment science project topics on pollution:

  • The impact of pollution on health care.
  • The effects of environmental pollution and water pollution on marine life.
  • The effects of air pollution on the food chain.
  • How environmental pollution affects Arctic.
  • The health hazards associated with waste accumulation and water pollution.
  • How do human activities change the world’s oceans?
  • Conservation and how it helps to reduce air pollution.
  • The difficulty of establishing direct links between health problems, air pollution, and air quality.
  • Environmental policy regarding air pollution and acid rain.
  • The effect of acid rain in urban and natural areas.

Environmental Science Topics for College Students

Environmental studies at college is all about studying in-depth biological, chemical, and physical processes on Earth. Environmental sciences also incorporates social, cultural, and political processes that have an impact. When studying Environmental Science at college level, a project need to seek out ways to present complex relationships in a simple way. Here are some ideal environmental science projects for college students:

  • Genetically Modified (GM) foods and their impact on the environment.
  • The global impact of radiation and nuclear accidents.
  • The role of the UNEP in environmental conservation.
  • The impact of freak weather incidents.
  • Micro-plastics in drinking water – why and how have they got there?
  • The Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings – what have we learned about nuclear bombs and the effects on the ecosystem?
  • The impact of Coronavirus and maintaining the ecosystem.
  • The role of the media in conservation campaigns.
  • Tourism and the impact of human activities on a local and global level.
  • How has the US departure from the Paris Climate Agreement changed things?

Energy Resources and Consumption

Lots of  environmental studies project topics goes into looking at energy resources and consumption, which makes this a great project topic. There is already a lot of information out there, which makes this easy to research.

  • What is the relationship between energy efficiency and energy conservation?
  • What are the economic, social, and environmental costs of solar energy?
  • Was coal pivotal in industrialization?
  • The impact of fracking on the environment.
  • Compare and contrast the processes of extracting oil and mining coal.
  • How is ethanol produced as a biofuel?
  • Nuclear energy is a viable clean energy. Discuss.
  • The environmental effects of a nuclear conflict explored.
  • What is plant biomass?
  • The challenges of converting to large-scale biomass energy.

You can't write a list environment project topics  about environmental science, without mentioning population, environmental health, and the changes we've seen over the years. A lot of environment research focuses on population and its effects. Here are some ideas:

  • Population growth and its effects on GDP.
  • Factors that control population growth and the effect of density.
  • An exploration of population momentum.
  • The importance of studying population ecology.
  • The effect of human migration on populations.
  • The effects of overpopulation.
  • The effects of global warming on the global population.
  • Is sustainable development possible in a growing population?
  • What would happen if the demand for natural resources became greater than the supply?
  • How serious is the world population explosion?

Noise and Light Pollution

Though lots of people don’t consider light and noise as pollutants, the reality is that they are. Noise levels and light levels can affect organisms. Here are some interesting topics for science projects on noise and light pollution:

  • How is local wildlife affected by airport noise?
  • What happens if orcas aren’t able to use echolocation due to freight noise?
  • Migrating birds and the confusion from bright lights.
  • The effect of bright lights in resorts and sea turtles emerging from nests.
  • How bright city lights affect nocturnal animals.
  • The disruption of nocturnal activity in frogs and toads due to artificial light glare.
  • Artificial lights and the effects on migratory birds.
  • Light pollution and the effects on plants.
  • Changes in animal behavior due to noise pollution.
  • Noise pollution and the effects on mating frogs.

Conservation Biology

With as many as 2,000 species becoming extinct each year, we’re experiencing a serious problem. Conservation biology is a huge topic of interest when you need to " write my essay " and want to succeed with this task. Here are some ideas for exploration:

  • How has human behavior ramped up endangered species extinction rates?
  • How do humans threaten endangered species?
  • What will the effects of a loss in biodiversity be for humans?
  • If honeybees become extinct, what other changes would we see?
  • Why is the decline in pollinating insects so dangerous?
  • What happens if we lose endangered species?
  • What is the Holocene extinction event?
  • The collapse of the world’s coral reef ecosystems.
  • The threat of acidification in our oceans.
  • How can environmental policy help threats to biodiversity?

It's clear to say that there is a huge variety in topics in environmental science. For anyone looking for an environmental science project topic, we hope this extensive list has helped narrow down your ideas. Whether you're looking for environmental research topics for college students or high school, there is something for everyone here.

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research questions about environmental issues

180 Environmental Research Topics & Questions to Write about

Environment affects us all, whether we want it or not. Political leaders and students alike discuss ways to tackle environmental topics & issues. Some might argue about the role humans play in all this. The fact remains that our environment is a delicate matter. That’s why we must educate ourselves on the issues related to it.

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

In this article by custom writing experts, you’ll find a list of environmental research questions to scrutinize and write about. The environmental essay topics in the collection below are related to economics, health, sociology, law, and even psychology. These ideas might be helpful either for school or for college students.

  • 🔝 Top 10 Topics
  • 🌡️🌍 Climate Change Topics
  • 🏭🌱 Sustainability
  • 🔬🌻 Environmental Science
  • 🌳⚖️ Environmental Law
  • 🧑🌿 Environmentalism

🔬 Top 10 Environmental Research Topics

  • 📖 Environmental Research Questions

🔝 Top 10 Environment Essay Topics

  • The life cycle of tornados
  • History of environmental studies
  • Positive impact of birdwatching
  • Drinking water and the environment
  • Christianity’s impact on the climate crisis
  • Climate’s effect on mountain ecosystems
  • How aviation contributes to global warming
  • Early commercial adaptation of thermal energy
  • What does nuclear meteorology investigate?
  • Fruitarianism’s benefits for the environment

🌡️🌍 Environmental Research Topics on Climate Change

Throughout history, the Earth’s climate always fluctuated. Ice ages were followed by warmer periods. However, the increase in temperature we perceive today is unusual. Because of this, climate change is one of today’s most pressing problems. Below we have compiled a list of 25 global warming topics. Have a look!

  • What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
  • Investigate how humans influence the climate.
  • Which regions suffer the most due to the rising sea levels?
  • How did the average weather in your region change over the past 20 years?
  • Why are coral reefs endangered?
  • How do melting glaciers impact the environment?
  • Examine what natural disasters are linked to climate change.
  • What does ocean acidification mean?
  • What are the effects of global warming?
  • Analyze the phenomenon of climate refugees.
  • How does global warming affect biodiversity?
  • Discuss the most significant causes of climate change.
  • Why are hurricanes becoming more intense?

Extinction fact.

  • What are the most significant agricultural problems caused by climate change?
  • How does the excess of CO2 impact the environment?
  • What actions lead to a CO2 increase in the atmosphere?
  • Discuss how hydraulic fracturing affects nature.
  • Explain how the greenhouse effect works.
  • What can each of us do to stop global warming?
  • How is ozone depletion related to climate change?
  • What was the purpose of the Paris Agreement?
  • Investigate how deforestation affects the climate.
  • Can we reverse global warming?
  • Examine why some people don’t believe in climate change.
  • What is the correlation between tree planting and climate change?

🌲 Environmental Research Topics on Ecology

Ecology is a branch of biology that investigates how organisms coexist. The environment shapes the way different species interact with each other. Essential factors can be living, such as nutrition, or nonliving, like water. Here are 25 prompts for your ecology essay:

  • Examine the ecological research methods.
  • What defines the number of organisms living in a community?
  • How does an ecosystem work?
  • Why do plants and animals go extinct?
  • Do non-native snakes threaten the U.S. ecosystem?
  • Explain the elements of population growth.
  • What would the world look like without bees?
  • How do organisms adapt to their environment?
  • Analyze how photosynthesis occurs.
  • What different relationships can organisms form with their surroundings?
  • Discuss the research methods of bird behavioral ecology.
  • How do organisms survive under extreme conditions?
  • Why do some birds migrate?

Ecology can be broadly categorized into five different areas.

  • Investigate why some animals benefit from living alone.
  • What can humans do to prevent pandas from extinction?
  • How do plants help combat climate change?
  • What’s the correlation between water management and ecology issues?
  • How does commercial fishing affect the oceans?
  • What are the most prominent current environmental threats?
  • How does the ecological footprint method work?
  • What are the long-term consequences of plastic use?
  • Analyze how nutrient cycles work.
  • What impact does human waste have on marine ecosystems?
  • Examine the different types of healthy bacteria.
  • How do cacti grow in the desert?

🏭🌱 Sustainability Topics for an Essay

According to the UN World Commission , sustainable development “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Simply put, sustainability means fulfilling the demand without exhausting any resources. Today, it plays a vital role in protecting the environment.

  • Give an example of sustainable practice.
  • Analyze the process of recycling.
  • Investigate what sustainability wants to achieve.
  • Explore the history of the green movement.
  • What can a country do to become greener?
  • Why do we need the concept of sustainable development?
  • Examine the ways of recycling water.
  • How can you make food sources more sustainable?
  • What does zero-waste mean?
  • Talk about the issues related to eco-friendly packaging.
  • Discuss ways of saving more energy.
  • What are the greener alternatives to plastic?
  • Examine the different sources of renewable energy.
  • How can a person live more sustainably?
  • Explain the three pillars of sustainability.

Effective ways to protect the environment.

  • How does green construction work?
  • What’s the connection between sustainability and climate change?
  • What can we do to reduce water pollution?
  • Discuss the impact of globalization on sustainable agriculture.
  • What is responsible consumption?
  • Why should we not use plastic?
  • Describe how wind turbines produce electricity.
  • How can technology become green?
  • What is social sustainability?
  • What are the most critical sustainability issues today?

🔬🌻 Environmental Science Topics for an Essay

Environmental science combines various approaches to study nature. In doing so, it tries to find solutions for ecological issues. Research goes into areas such as pollution and alternative energy. If you want to write about it, have a look at our topics:

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  • What are the environmental impacts of production and consumption?
  • Examine ways of improving agriculture.
  • What are the critical elements of environmental science?
  • Discuss the advantages of green engineering.
  • What are the different types of pollution?
  • Determine the primary goals of environmental science.
  • What are invasive species?
  • Investigate the benefits of reforestation.
  • Describe the Amazon rainforest and its role in the environment.
  • Explore the various types of agriculture.
  • Discuss the pros and cons of GMOs.
  • What effects does a biodiversity loss have on humanity?
  • How do dams and channels affect ecosystems?
  • What is the connection between social and environmental sciences?
  • Why is overpopulation a problem?
  • Explain the process of desertification.
  • How does mining cause environmental disasters?
  • Investigate the Gaia Hypothesis.
  • What are the causes of acid rain?
  • How is our health affected by pollution?

Franklin Roosevelt quote.

  • Explain the importance of energy efficiency.
  • Explore the link between globalization and ecological problems.
  • Why are fossil fuels harmful to the environment?
  • What are ecological niches?
  • Analyze the pros and cons of nuclear energy.

🌳⚖️ Environmental Law Topics for Papers

Environmental law aims to protect nature. It’s the legal foundation of human interaction with their surroundings. Besides, it formulates how we should utilize natural resources. Take a look at these compelling topics for your paper:

  • How is waste regulated in your community?
  • What laws address contaminant cleanup?
  • Why do we need chemical safety regulations?
  • Examine legal ways to curb hunting and fishing.
  • Describe environmental protection in the US and in the Hawaii state.
  • Discuss the Rio Declaration.
  • Why can environmental laws be controversial?
  • What are the advantages of emission certificates?
  • Investigate the process of emissions trading.
  • How does your country regulate air quality?
  • What makes the laws concerning water quality vital?
  • What are the general principles of environmental law?
  • When can a piece of land be declared a natural reserve?
  • Should there be a binding international environmental constitution?
  • Explore the history of environmental law.
  • What purposes do wildlife reserves serve?
  • Discuss the legacy of Kyoto Protocol.
  • Analyze the marine pollution prevention efforts in Australia.
  • What are environmental assessment mandates?
  • Investigate economic incentives for environmental protection.
  • Discuss why ecotourism needs to be regulated.
  • Why is it difficult for some countries to become green?
  • Establish a connection between free trade agreements and ecological problems.
  • Do businesses have to incorporate environmental law?
  • Compare several international agreements on ecological issues.

🧑🌿 Environmentalism Topics to Write About

Movements aiming to protect nature are at the core of environmentalism. The idea first gained traction in the 1960s. Notable organizations include PETA and Greenpeace. If you’re interested in environmentalism, consult this topics list:

  • Investigate the history of environmentalism.
  • Discuss the negative impacts of urban sprawl.
  • What is Earth Day?

Earth Day is celebrated worldwide on April 22.

  • Describe the key concepts of environmentalism.
  • What are the different types of green movements?
  • Compare the goals of various NGOs.
  • What does the WWF do?
  • Describe the main achievements of nature activists.
  • Explain what apocalyptic environmentalism is.
  • Who is Greta Thunberg?
  • Discuss the impact of the Fridays for Future movement.
  • Explain emancipatory environmentalism.
  • Investigate the Animal Liberation Front.
  • Analyze the central concerns of ecofeminism.
  • Why are environmental movements important?
  • Who was John Muir?
  • Explain what ecoterrorism is.
  • Does going green equal saving the environment?
  • Who were the first nature activists?
  • Discuss the influence of green political parties.
  • What is environmental justice?
  • Explain how civic environmentalism works.
  • Are the actions of Greenpeace always justified?
  • What are some examples of good nature activism tactics?
  • Analyze the effect environmentalist movements have on politics.
  • Types of marine pollution
  • Concepts of ecofeminism
  • Causes of grassland degradation
  • Advantages of hydroelectricity
  • Organic farming support in the US
  • Energy conservation in the US
  • What does photochemical smog depend on?
  • Seasonal behavior of urban heat island
  • Nuclear and radiation accident categories
  • Can baffle spray scrubbers control pollution?

📖 Top 10 Environmental Research Questions

  • What are the causes and effects of air pollution?
  • What are the most dangerous effects of climate change?
  • What are the most severe diseases caused by water pollution?
  • Is global warming real?
  • How does deforestation affect people and animals?
  • Do carbon offset programs work?
  • How to prevent and control soil pollution?
  • How does plastic pollution affect marine life?
  • What are the most threatened biodiversity hotspots?
  • What should we do about overpopulation?

We hope this article helped you decide what your paper will be about. If the topic you’ve chosen is still not perfect, feel free to customize it! Good luck, and have fun with your essay.

You might also be interested in:

  • A List of 212 Brilliant Research Proposal Topics to Investigate
  • 220 Interesting Biology Topics for Essays & Research Papers
  • A List of 220 Physics Topics & Questions to Research
  • 300 Interesting Chemistry Topics & Writing Tips
  • 281 Best Health & Medical Research Topics

🔍 References

  • Environmental Issues Guide: Giving Compass
  • Climate Change: National Geographic
  • Climate Change and Global Warming: NASA
  • What Is Ecology?: Khan Academy
  • Ecology: Encyclopedia Britannica
  • What Is Sustainability and Why Is It Important?: Environmental Science
  • Environmentalism: Learning to Give
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  • Share to LinkedIn
  • Share to email

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  • Managing Chemical Risks
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Chemicals, Pesticides, and Toxics Topics

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Environmental Information by Location

  • Cleanups in My Community
  • Environmental Justice in Your Community
  • Radon Zones: Maps and Supporting Documents by State
  • Toxic Chemical Releases

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  • Energy and the Environment
  • Greener Products and Services
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Greener Living Topics

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Research Topics & Ideas: Environment

100+ Environmental Science Research Topics & Ideas

Research topics and ideas within the environmental sciences

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation, thesis or research project. Here, we’ll explore a variety research ideas and topic thought-starters related to various environmental science disciplines, including ecology, oceanography, hydrology, geology, soil science, environmental chemistry, environmental economics, and environmental ethics.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas within the environmental sciences. This is the starting point though. To develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also be sure to also sign up for our free webinar that explores how to develop a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Environmental Topics

  • Ecology /ecological science
  • Atmospheric science
  • Oceanography
  • Soil science
  • Environmental chemistry
  • Environmental economics
  • Environmental ethics
  • Examples  of dissertations and theses

Topics & Ideas: Ecological Science

  • The impact of land-use change on species diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes
  • The role of disturbances such as fire and drought in shaping arid ecosystems
  • The impact of climate change on the distribution of migratory marine species
  • Investigating the role of mutualistic plant-insect relationships in maintaining ecosystem stability
  • The effects of invasive plant species on ecosystem structure and function
  • The impact of habitat fragmentation caused by road construction on species diversity and population dynamics in the tropics
  • The role of ecosystem services in urban areas and their economic value to a developing nation
  • The effectiveness of different grassland restoration techniques in degraded ecosystems
  • The impact of land-use change through agriculture and urbanisation on soil microbial communities in a temperate environment
  • The role of microbial diversity in ecosystem health and nutrient cycling in an African savannah

Topics & Ideas: Atmospheric Science

  • The impact of climate change on atmospheric circulation patterns above tropical rainforests
  • The role of atmospheric aerosols in cloud formation and precipitation above cities with high pollution levels
  • The impact of agricultural land-use change on global atmospheric composition
  • Investigating the role of atmospheric convection in severe weather events in the tropics
  • The impact of urbanisation on regional and global atmospheric ozone levels
  • The impact of sea surface temperature on atmospheric circulation and tropical cyclones
  • The impact of solar flares on the Earth’s atmospheric composition
  • The impact of climate change on atmospheric turbulence and air transportation safety
  • The impact of stratospheric ozone depletion on atmospheric circulation and climate change
  • The role of atmospheric rivers in global water supply and sea-ice formation

Research topic evaluator

Topics & Ideas: Oceanography

  • The impact of ocean acidification on kelp forests and biogeochemical cycles
  • The role of ocean currents in distributing heat and regulating desert rain
  • The impact of carbon monoxide pollution on ocean chemistry and biogeochemical cycles
  • Investigating the role of ocean mixing in regulating coastal climates
  • The impact of sea level rise on the resource availability of low-income coastal communities
  • The impact of ocean warming on the distribution and migration patterns of marine mammals
  • The impact of ocean deoxygenation on biogeochemical cycles in the arctic
  • The role of ocean-atmosphere interactions in regulating rainfall in arid regions
  • The impact of ocean eddies on global ocean circulation and plankton distribution
  • The role of ocean-ice interactions in regulating the Earth’s climate and sea level

Research topic idea mega list

Tops & Ideas: Hydrology

  • The impact of agricultural land-use change on water resources and hydrologic cycles in temperate regions
  • The impact of agricultural groundwater availability on irrigation practices in the global south
  • The impact of rising sea-surface temperatures on global precipitation patterns and water availability
  • Investigating the role of wetlands in regulating water resources for riparian forests
  • The impact of tropical ranches on river and stream ecosystems and water quality
  • The impact of urbanisation on regional and local hydrologic cycles and water resources for agriculture
  • The role of snow cover and mountain hydrology in regulating regional agricultural water resources
  • The impact of drought on food security in arid and semi-arid regions
  • The role of groundwater recharge in sustaining water resources in arid and semi-arid environments
  • The impact of sea level rise on coastal hydrology and the quality of water resources

Research Topic Kickstarter - Need Help Finding A Research Topic?

Topics & Ideas: Geology

  • The impact of tectonic activity on the East African rift valley
  • The role of mineral deposits in shaping ancient human societies
  • The impact of sea-level rise on coastal geomorphology and shoreline evolution
  • Investigating the role of erosion in shaping the landscape and impacting desertification
  • The impact of mining on soil stability and landslide potential
  • The impact of volcanic activity on incoming solar radiation and climate
  • The role of geothermal energy in decarbonising the energy mix of megacities
  • The impact of Earth’s magnetic field on geological processes and solar wind
  • The impact of plate tectonics on the evolution of mammals
  • The role of the distribution of mineral resources in shaping human societies and economies, with emphasis on sustainability

Topics & Ideas: Soil Science

  • The impact of dam building on soil quality and fertility
  • The role of soil organic matter in regulating nutrient cycles in agricultural land
  • The impact of climate change on soil erosion and soil organic carbon storage in peatlands
  • Investigating the role of above-below-ground interactions in nutrient cycling and soil health
  • The impact of deforestation on soil degradation and soil fertility
  • The role of soil texture and structure in regulating water and nutrient availability in boreal forests
  • The impact of sustainable land management practices on soil health and soil organic matter
  • The impact of wetland modification on soil structure and function
  • The role of soil-atmosphere exchange and carbon sequestration in regulating regional and global climate
  • The impact of salinization on soil health and crop productivity in coastal communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Chemistry

  • The impact of cobalt mining on water quality and the fate of contaminants in the environment
  • The role of atmospheric chemistry in shaping air quality and climate change
  • The impact of soil chemistry on nutrient availability and plant growth in wheat monoculture
  • Investigating the fate and transport of heavy metal contaminants in the environment
  • The impact of climate change on biochemical cycling in tropical rainforests
  • The impact of various types of land-use change on biochemical cycling
  • The role of soil microbes in mediating contaminant degradation in the environment
  • The impact of chemical and oil spills on freshwater and soil chemistry
  • The role of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in shaping water and soil chemistry
  • The impact of over-irrigation on the cycling and fate of persistent organic pollutants in the environment

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Economics

  • The impact of climate change on the economies of developing nations
  • The role of market-based mechanisms in promoting sustainable use of forest resources
  • The impact of environmental regulations on economic growth and competitiveness
  • Investigating the economic benefits and costs of ecosystem services for African countries
  • The impact of renewable energy policies on regional and global energy markets
  • The role of water markets in promoting sustainable water use in southern Africa
  • The impact of land-use change in rural areas on regional and global economies
  • The impact of environmental disasters on local and national economies
  • The role of green technologies and innovation in shaping the zero-carbon transition and the knock-on effects for local economies
  • The impact of environmental and natural resource policies on income distribution and poverty of rural communities

Topics & Ideas: Environmental Ethics

  • The ethical foundations of environmentalism and the environmental movement regarding renewable energy
  • The role of values and ethics in shaping environmental policy and decision-making in the mining industry
  • The impact of cultural and religious beliefs on environmental attitudes and behaviours in first world countries
  • Investigating the ethics of biodiversity conservation and the protection of endangered species in palm oil plantations
  • The ethical implications of sea-level rise for future generations and vulnerable coastal populations
  • The role of ethical considerations in shaping sustainable use of natural forest resources
  • The impact of environmental justice on marginalized communities and environmental policies in Asia
  • The ethical implications of environmental risks and decision-making under uncertainty
  • The role of ethics in shaping the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable future for the construction industry
  • The impact of environmental values on consumer behaviour and the marketplace: a case study of the ‘bring your own shopping bag’ policy

Examples: Real Dissertation & Thesis Topics

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various environmental science-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

  • The physiology of microorganisms in enhanced biological phosphorous removal (Saunders, 2014)
  • The influence of the coastal front on heavy rainfall events along the east coast (Henson, 2019)
  • Forage production and diversification for climate-smart tropical and temperate silvopastures (Dibala, 2019)
  • Advancing spectral induced polarization for near surface geophysical characterization (Wang, 2021)
  • Assessment of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter and Thamnocephalus platyurus as Tools to Monitor Cyanobacterial Bloom Development and Toxicity (Hipsher, 2019)
  • Evaluating the Removal of Microcystin Variants with Powdered Activated Carbon (Juang, 2020)
  • The effect of hydrological restoration on nutrient concentrations, macroinvertebrate communities, and amphibian populations in Lake Erie coastal wetlands (Berg, 2019)
  • Utilizing hydrologic soil grouping to estimate corn nitrogen rate recommendations (Bean, 2019)
  • Fungal Function in House Dust and Dust from the International Space Station (Bope, 2021)
  • Assessing Vulnerability and the Potential for Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) in Sudan’s Blue Nile Basin (Mohamed, 2022)
  • A Microbial Water Quality Analysis of the Recreational Zones in the Los Angeles River of Elysian Valley, CA (Nguyen, 2019)
  • Dry Season Water Quality Study on Three Recreational Sites in the San Gabriel Mountains (Vallejo, 2019)
  • Wastewater Treatment Plan for Unix Packaging Adjustment of the Potential Hydrogen (PH) Evaluation of Enzymatic Activity After the Addition of Cycle Disgestase Enzyme (Miessi, 2020)
  • Laying the Genetic Foundation for the Conservation of Longhorn Fairy Shrimp (Kyle, 2021).

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. To create a top-notch research topic, you will need to be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you’ll need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

Need more help?

If you’re still feeling a bit unsure about how to find a research topic for your environmental science dissertation or research project, be sure to check out our private coaching services below, as well as our Research Topic Kickstarter .

Need a helping hand?

research questions about environmental issues

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Research Method

Home » 500+ Environmental Research Topics

500+ Environmental Research Topics

Environmental Research Topics

Environmental research is a crucial area of study in today’s world, as we face an increasing number of complex and pressing environmental challenges. From climate change to pollution, biodiversity loss to natural resource depletion, there is an urgent need for scientific inquiry and investigation to inform policy, decision-making, and action. Environmental research encompasses a broad range of disciplines, including ecology, biology , geology, chemistry , and physics , among others, and explores a diverse array of topics , from ocean acidification to sustainable agriculture. Through rigorous scientific inquiry and a commitment to generating evidence-based solutions, environmental research plays a vital role in promoting the health and well-being of our planet and its inhabitants. In this article, we will cover some trending Environmental Research Topics.

Environmental Research Topics

Environmental Research Topics are as follows:

  • Climate change and its impacts on ecosystems and society
  • The effectiveness of carbon capture and storage technology
  • The role of biodiversity in maintaining healthy ecosystems
  • The impact of human activity on soil quality
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine life
  • The effectiveness of renewable energy sources
  • The impact of deforestation on local communities and wildlife
  • The relationship between air pollution and human health
  • The impact of agricultural practices on soil erosion
  • The effectiveness of conservation measures for endangered species
  • The impact of overfishing on marine ecosystems
  • The role of wetlands in mitigating climate change
  • The impact of oil spills on marine ecosystems
  • The impact of urbanization on local ecosystems
  • The impact of climate change on global food security
  • The effectiveness of water conservation measures
  • The impact of pesticide use on pollinators
  • The impact of acid rain on aquatic ecosystems
  • The impact of sea level rise on coastal communities
  • The effectiveness of carbon taxes in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of habitat destruction on migratory species
  • The impact of invasive species on native ecosystems
  • The role of national parks in biodiversity conservation
  • The impact of climate change on coral reefs
  • The effectiveness of green roofs in reducing urban heat island effect
  • The impact of noise pollution on wildlife behavior
  • The impact of air pollution on crop yields
  • The effectiveness of composting in reducing organic waste
  • The impact of climate change on the Arctic ecosystem
  • The impact of land use change on soil carbon sequestration
  • The role of mangroves in coastal protection and carbon sequestration
  • The impact of microplastics on marine ecosystems
  • The impact of ocean acidification on marine organisms
  • The effectiveness of carbon offsets in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of deforestation on climate regulation
  • The impact of groundwater depletion on agriculture
  • The impact of climate change on migratory bird populations
  • The effectiveness of wind turbines in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of urbanization on bird diversity
  • The impact of climate change on ocean currents
  • The impact of drought on plant and animal populations
  • The effectiveness of agroforestry in improving soil quality
  • The impact of climate change on water availability
  • The impact of wildfires on carbon storage in forests
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green energy subsidies
  • The impact of nitrogen pollution on aquatic ecosystems
  • The impact of climate change on forest ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of community-based conservation initiatives
  • The impact of climate change on the water cycle
  • The impact of mining activities on local ecosystems
  • The impact of wind energy on bird and bat populations
  • The effectiveness of bioremediation in cleaning up contaminated soil and water
  • The impact of deforestation on local climate patterns
  • The impact of climate change on insect populations
  • The impact of agricultural runoff on freshwater ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of smart irrigation systems in reducing water use
  • The impact of ocean currents on marine biodiversity
  • The impact of climate change on wetland ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green buildings in reducing energy use
  • The impact of climate change on glacier retreat and sea level rise
  • The impact of light pollution on nocturnal wildlife behavior
  • The impact of climate change on desert ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of electric vehicles in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of ocean pollution on human health
  • The impact of land use change on water quality
  • The impact of urbanization on bird populations
  • The impact of oil spills on marine ecosystems and wildlife
  • The effectiveness of green energy storage technologies in promoting renewable energy use
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater availability and water management
  • The impact of industrial pollution on air quality and human health
  • The effectiveness of urban green spaces in promoting human health and well-being
  • The impact of climate change on snow cover and winter tourism
  • The impact of agricultural land use on biodiversity and ecosystem services
  • The effectiveness of green incentives in promoting sustainable consumer behavior
  • The impact of ocean acidification on shellfish and mollusk populations
  • The impact of climate change on river flow and flooding
  • The effectiveness of green supply chain management in promoting sustainable production
  • The impact of noise pollution on avian communication and behavior
  • The impact of climate change on arctic ecosystems and wildlife
  • The effectiveness of green marketing in promoting sustainable tourism
  • The impact of microplastics on marine food webs and human health
  • The impact of climate change on invasive species distributions
  • The effectiveness of green infrastructure in promoting sustainable urban development
  • The impact of plastic pollution on human health and food safety
  • The impact of climate change on soil microbial communities and nutrient cycling
  • The effectiveness of green technologies in promoting sustainable industrial production
  • The impact of climate change on permafrost thaw and methane emissions
  • The impact of deforestation on water quality and quantity
  • The effectiveness of green certification schemes in promoting sustainable production and consumption
  • The impact of noise pollution on terrestrial ecosystems and wildlife
  • The impact of climate change on bird migration patterns
  • The effectiveness of green waste management in promoting sustainable resource use
  • The impact of climate change on insect populations and ecosystem services
  • The impact of plastic pollution on human society and culture
  • The effectiveness of green finance in promoting sustainable development goals
  • The impact of climate change on marine biodiversity hotspots
  • The impact of climate change on natural disasters and disaster risk reduction
  • The effectiveness of green urban planning in promoting sustainable cities and communities
  • The impact of deforestation on soil carbon storage and climate change
  • The impact of noise pollution on human communication and behavior
  • The effectiveness of green energy policy in promoting renewable energy use
  • The impact of climate change on Arctic sea ice and wildlife
  • The impact of agricultural practices on soil quality and ecosystem health
  • The effectiveness of green taxation in promoting sustainable behavior
  • The impact of plastic pollution on freshwater ecosystems and wildlife
  • The impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions and crop production
  • The effectiveness of green innovation in promoting sustainable technological advancements
  • The impact of climate change on ocean currents and marine heatwaves
  • The impact of deforestation on indigenous communities and cultural practices
  • The effectiveness of green governance in promoting sustainable development and environmental justice
  • The effectiveness of wetland restoration in reducing flood risk
  • The impact of climate change on the spread of vector-borne diseases
  • The effectiveness of green marketing in promoting sustainable consumption
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems
  • The impact of renewable energy development on wildlife habitats
  • The effectiveness of environmental education programs in promoting pro-environmental behavior
  • The impact of deforestation on global climate change
  • The impact of microplastics on freshwater ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of eco-labeling in promoting sustainable seafood consumption
  • The impact of climate change on coral reef ecosystems
  • The impact of air pollution on human health and mortality rates
  • The effectiveness of eco-tourism in promoting conservation and community development
  • The impact of climate change on agricultural production and food security
  • The impact of wind turbine noise on wildlife behavior and populations
  • The impact of light pollution on nocturnal ecosystems and species
  • The effectiveness of green energy subsidies in promoting renewable energy use
  • The impact of invasive species on native ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of climate change on ocean acidification and marine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green public procurement in promoting sustainable production
  • The impact of deforestation on soil erosion and nutrient depletion
  • The impact of noise pollution on human health and well-being
  • The effectiveness of green building standards in promoting sustainable construction
  • The impact of climate change on forest fires and wildfire risk
  • The impact of e-waste on human health and environmental pollution
  • The impact of climate change on polar ice caps and sea levels
  • The impact of pharmaceutical pollution on freshwater ecosystems and wildlife
  • The effectiveness of green transportation policies in reducing carbon emissions
  • The impact of climate change on glacier retreat and water availability
  • The impact of pesticide use on pollinator populations and ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of circular economy models in reducing waste and promoting sustainability
  • The impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of plastic waste on terrestrial ecosystems and wildlife
  • The effectiveness of green chemistry in promoting sustainable manufacturing
  • The impact of climate change on ocean currents and weather patterns
  • The impact of agricultural runoff on freshwater ecosystems and water quality
  • The effectiveness of green bonds in financing sustainable infrastructure projects
  • The impact of climate change on soil moisture and desertification
  • The impact of noise pollution on marine ecosystems and species
  • The effectiveness of community-based conservation in promoting biodiversity and ecosystem health
  • The impact of climate change on permafrost ecosystems and carbon storage
  • The impact of urbanization on water pollution and quality
  • The effectiveness of green jobs in promoting sustainable employment
  • The impact of climate change on wetland ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of plastic pollution on terrestrial ecosystems and wildlife
  • The effectiveness of sustainable fashion in promoting sustainable consumption
  • The impact of climate change on phenology and seasonal cycles of plants and animals
  • The impact of ocean pollution on human health and seafood safety
  • The effectiveness of green procurement policies in promoting sustainable supply chains
  • The impact of climate change on marine food webs and ecosystems
  • The impact of agricultural practices on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change
  • The effectiveness of green financing in promoting sustainable investment
  • The effectiveness of rainwater harvesting systems in reducing water use
  • The impact of climate change on permafrost ecosystems
  • The impact of coastal erosion on shoreline ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green infrastructure in reducing urban heat island effect
  • The impact of microorganisms on soil fertility and carbon sequestration
  • The impact of climate change on snowpack and water availability
  • The impact of oil and gas drilling on local ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of carbon labeling in promoting sustainable consumer choices
  • The impact of marine noise pollution on marine mammals
  • The impact of climate change on alpine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green supply chain management in reducing environmental impact
  • The impact of climate change on river ecosystems
  • The impact of urban sprawl on wildlife habitat fragmentation
  • The effectiveness of carbon trading in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of ocean warming on marine ecosystems
  • The impact of agricultural practices on water quality and quantity
  • The effectiveness of green roofs in improving urban air quality
  • The impact of climate change on tropical rainforests
  • The impact of water pollution on human health and livelihoods
  • The effectiveness of green bonds in financing sustainable projects
  • The impact of climate change on polar bear populations
  • The impact of human activity on soil biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of waste-to-energy systems in reducing waste and emissions
  • The impact of climate change on Arctic sea ice and marine ecosystems
  • The impact of sea level rise on low-lying coastal cities and communities
  • The effectiveness of sustainable tourism in promoting conservation and community development
  • The impact of deforestation on indigenous peoples and their livelihoods
  • The impact of climate change on sea turtle populations
  • The effectiveness of carbon-neutral and carbon-negative technologies
  • The impact of urbanization on water resources and quality
  • The impact of climate change on cold-water fish populations
  • The effectiveness of green entrepreneurship in promoting sustainable innovation
  • The impact of wildfires on air quality and public health
  • The impact of climate change on human migration patterns and social systems
  • The impact of noise pollution on bird communication and behavior in urban environments
  • The impact of climate change on estuarine ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of deforestation on water availability and river basin management
  • The impact of climate change on plant phenology and distribution
  • The effectiveness of green marketing in promoting sustainable consumer behavior
  • The impact of plastic pollution on freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of climate change on marine plastic debris accumulation and distribution
  • The effectiveness of green innovation in promoting sustainable technology development
  • The impact of climate change on crop yields and food security
  • The impact of noise pollution on human health and well-being in urban environments
  • The impact of climate change on Arctic marine ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of green transportation infrastructure in promoting sustainable mobility
  • The impact of deforestation on non-timber forest products and forest-dependent livelihoods
  • The impact of climate change on wetland carbon sequestration and storage
  • The impact of plastic pollution on sea turtle populations and nesting behavior
  • The impact of climate change on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in the Southern Ocean
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable agriculture
  • The impact of climate change on oceanographic processes and upwelling systems
  • The impact of noise pollution on terrestrial wildlife communication and behavior
  • The impact of climate change on coastal erosion and shoreline management
  • The effectiveness of green finance in promoting sustainable investment
  • The impact of deforestation on indigenous communities and traditional knowledge systems
  • The impact of climate change on tropical cyclones and extreme weather events
  • The effectiveness of green buildings in promoting energy efficiency and carbon reduction
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine food webs and trophic interactions
  • The impact of climate change on algal blooms and harmful algal blooms in marine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green business partnerships in promoting sustainable development goals
  • The impact of climate change on ocean deoxygenation and its effects on marine life
  • The impact of noise pollution on human sleep and rest patterns in urban environments
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater availability and management
  • The effectiveness of green entrepreneurship in promoting social and environmental justice
  • The impact of deforestation on wildlife habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • The impact of climate change on the migration patterns and behaviors of birds and mammals
  • The effectiveness of green urban planning in promoting sustainable and livable cities
  • The impact of plastic pollution on microplastics and nanoplastics in marine ecosystems
  • The impact of climate change on marine ecosystem services and their value to society
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable forestry
  • The impact of climate change on ocean currents and their effects on marine biodiversity
  • The impact of noise pollution on urban ecosystems and their ecological functions
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
  • The effectiveness of green policy implementation in promoting sustainable development
  • The impact of deforestation on soil carbon storage and greenhouse gas emissions
  • The impact of climate change on marine mammals and their ecosystem roles
  • The effectiveness of green product labeling in promoting sustainable consumer behavior
  • The impact of plastic pollution on coral reefs and their resilience to climate change
  • The impact of climate change on waterborne diseases and public health
  • The effectiveness of green energy policies in promoting renewable energy adoption
  • The impact of deforestation on carbon storage and sequestration in peatlands
  • The impact of climate change on ocean acidification and its effects on marine life
  • The effectiveness of green supply chain management in promoting circular economy principles
  • The impact of noise pollution on urban birds and their vocal communication
  • The impact of climate change on ecosystem services provided by mangrove forests
  • The effectiveness of green marketing in promoting sustainable fashion and textiles
  • The impact of plastic pollution on deep-sea ecosystems and biodiversity
  • The impact of climate change on marine biodiversity hotspots and conservation priorities
  • The effectiveness of green investment in promoting sustainable infrastructure development
  • The impact of deforestation on ecosystem services provided by agroforestry systems
  • The impact of climate change on snow and ice cover and their effects on freshwater ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green tourism in promoting sustainable tourism practices
  • The impact of noise pollution on human cognitive performance and productivity
  • The impact of climate change on forest fires and their effects on ecosystem services
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable seafood consumption
  • The impact of climate change on insect populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The impact of plastic pollution on seabird populations and their reproductive success
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable public sector spending
  • The impact of deforestation on soil erosion and land degradation
  • The impact of climate change on riverine ecosystems and their ecosystem services
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable fisheries
  • The impact of noise pollution on marine mammals and their acoustic communication
  • The impact of climate change on terrestrial carbon sinks and sources
  • The effectiveness of green technology transfer in promoting sustainable development
  • The impact of deforestation on non-timber forest products and their sustainable use
  • The impact of climate change on marine invasive species and their ecological impacts
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable private sector spending
  • The impact of plastic pollution on zooplankton populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The impact of climate change on wetland ecosystems and their services
  • The effectiveness of green education in promoting sustainable behavior change
  • The impact of deforestation on watershed management and water quality
  • The impact of climate change on soil nutrient cycling and ecosystem functioning
  • The effectiveness of green technology innovation in promoting sustainable development
  • The impact of noise pollution on human health in outdoor recreational settings
  • The impact of climate change on oceanic nutrient cycling and primary productivity
  • The effectiveness of green urban design in promoting sustainable and resilient cities
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine microbial communities and their functions
  • The impact of climate change on coral reef bleaching and recovery
  • The impact of deforestation on ecosystem services provided by community-managed forests
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater fish populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable tourism
  • The impact of noise pollution on human stress and cardiovascular health
  • The impact of climate change on glacier retreat and their effects on freshwater ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green technology diffusion in promoting sustainable development
  • The impact of plastic pollution on sea grass beds and their ecosystem services
  • The impact of climate change on forest phenology and productivity.
  • The effectiveness of green transportation policies in promoting sustainable mobility
  • The impact of deforestation on indigenous peoples’ livelihoods and traditional knowledge
  • The impact of climate change on Arctic ecosystems and their biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of green building standards in promoting sustainable architecture
  • The impact of noise pollution on nocturnal animals and their behavior
  • The impact of climate change on migratory bird populations and their breeding success
  • The effectiveness of green taxation in promoting sustainable consumption and production
  • The impact of deforestation on wildlife corridors and ecosystem connectivity
  • The impact of climate change on urban heat islands and their effects on public health
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable forestry practices
  • The impact of plastic pollution on sea turtle populations and their nesting success
  • The impact of climate change on invasive plant species and their ecological impacts
  • The effectiveness of green business practices in promoting sustainable entrepreneurship
  • The impact of noise pollution on urban wildlife and their acoustic communication
  • The impact of climate change on alpine ecosystems and their services
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems
  • The impact of deforestation on soil carbon stocks and their effects on climate change
  • The impact of climate change on wetland methane emissions and their contribution to greenhouse gas concentrations
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable forestry and timber production
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine mammal populations and their health
  • The impact of climate change on marine fisheries and their sustainable management
  • The effectiveness of green investment in promoting sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation
  • The impact of noise pollution on bat populations and their behavior
  • The impact of climate change on permafrost thaw and its effects on Arctic ecosystems
  • The impact of deforestation on ecosystem services provided by sacred groves
  • The impact of climate change on tropical cyclones and their impacts on coastal ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green technology transfer in promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems
  • The impact of plastic pollution on benthic macroinvertebrate populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater invertebrate populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The effectiveness of green tourism in promoting sustainable wildlife tourism practices
  • The impact of noise pollution on amphibian populations and their communication
  • The impact of climate change on mountain ecosystems and their biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable agriculture and food systems
  • The impact of deforestation on indigenous peoples’ food security and nutrition
  • The impact of climate change on plant-pollinator interactions and their ecosystem roles
  • The impact of plastic pollution on freshwater ecosystems and their services
  • The impact of climate change on oceanic currents and their effects on marine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green investment in promoting sustainable transportation infrastructure
  • The impact of noise pollution on human sleep quality and mental health
  • The impact of climate change on marine viruses and their effects on marine life
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable packaging and waste reduction
  • The impact of deforestation on ecosystem services provided by riparian forests
  • The impact of climate change on insect-pollinated crops and their yields
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable waste management
  • The impact of plastic pollution on estuarine ecosystems and their services
  • The impact of climate change on groundwater recharge and aquifer depletion
  • The effectiveness of green education in promoting sustainable tourism practices
  • The impact of climate change on coral reefs and their biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable clothing and textile production
  • The impact of deforestation on riverine fish populations and their fishery-dependent communities
  • The impact of climate change on mountain water resources and their availability
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable tourism accommodations
  • The impact of plastic pollution on deep-sea ecosystems and their biodiversity
  • The impact of climate change on sea-level rise and its effects on coastal ecosystems and communities
  • The effectiveness of green energy policies in promoting renewable energy production
  • The impact of noise pollution on human cardiovascular health
  • The impact of climate change on biogeochemical cycles in marine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable personal care and cosmetic products
  • The impact of deforestation on carbon sequestration and its effects on climate change
  • The impact of climate change on wildfire frequency and severity
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable energy-efficient technologies
  • The impact of plastic pollution on beach ecosystems and their tourism potential
  • The impact of climate change on marine mammals and their habitat range shifts
  • The effectiveness of green urban design in promoting sustainable and livable neighborhoods
  • The impact of noise pollution on urban human and wildlife communities
  • The impact of climate change on soil microorganisms and their roles in nutrient cycling
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable electronics and e-waste management
  • The impact of deforestation on watershed services and their effects on downstream ecosystems and communities
  • The impact of climate change on human migration patterns and their impacts on urbanization
  • The effectiveness of green investment in promoting sustainable water management and infrastructure
  • The impact of plastic pollution on seabird populations and their nesting success
  • The impact of climate change on ocean acidification and its effects on marine ecosystems
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable fisheries and aquaculture
  • The impact of noise pollution on terrestrial carnivore populations and their communication
  • The impact of climate change on snow and ice dynamics in polar regions
  • The effectiveness of green tourism in promoting sustainable cultural heritage preservation
  • The impact of deforestation on riverine water quality and their effects on aquatic life
  • The impact of climate change on forest fires and their ecological effects
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable home appliances and energy use
  • The impact of plastic pollution on marine invertebrate populations and their ecosystem roles
  • The impact of climate change on soil erosion and its effects on agricultural productivity
  • The effectiveness of green procurement in promoting sustainable construction materials and waste reduction
  • The impact of noise pollution on marine mammal populations and their behavior
  • The impact of climate change on ocean circulation and its effects on marine life
  • The effectiveness of green investment in promoting sustainable forest management
  • The impact of deforestation on medicinal plant populations and their traditional uses
  • The impact of climate change on wetland ecosystems and their carbon storage capacity
  • The effectiveness of green urban planning in promoting sustainable and resilient cities
  • The impact of plastic pollution on seabed ecosystems and their biodiversity
  • The effectiveness of green certification in promoting sustainable palm oil production
  • The impact of noise pollution on bird populations and their communication
  • The impact of climate change on freshwater quality and its effects on aquatic life
  • The effectiveness of green labeling in promoting sustainable food packaging and waste reduction
  • The impact of deforestation on streamflow and its effects on downstream

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Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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50 Best Environmental Science Research Topics

May 31, 2023

research questions about environmental issues

Environmental science is a varied discipline that encompasses a variety of subjects, including ecology, atmospheric science, and geology among others. Professionals within this field can pursue many occupations from lab technicians and agricultural engineers to park rangers and environmental lawyers. However, what unites these careers is their focus on how the natural world and the human world interact and impact the surrounding environment. There is also one other significant commonality among environmental science careers: virtually all of them either engage in or rely on research on environmental science topics to ensure their work is accurate and up to date.

In this post, we’ll outline some of the best environmental science research topics to help you explore disciplines within environmental science and kickstart your own research. If you are considering majoring in environmental science or perhaps just need help brainstorming for a research paper, this post will give you a broad sense of timely environmental science research topics.

What makes a research topic good?

Before we dive into specific environmental science research topics, let’s first cover the basics: what qualities make for a viable research topic. Research is the process of collecting information to make discoveries and reach new conclusions. We often think of research as something that occurs in academic or scientific settings. However, everyone engages in informal research in everyday life, from reading product reviews to investigating statistics for admitted students at prospective colleges . While we all conduct research in our day-to-day lives, formal academic research is necessary to advance discoveries and scholarly discourses. Therefore, in this setting, good research hinges on a topic in which there are unanswered questions or ongoing debates. In other words, meaningful research focuses on topics where you can say something new.

However, identifying an interesting research topic is only the first step in the research process. Research topics tend to be broad in scope. Strong research is dependent on developing a specific research question, meaning the query your project will seek to answer. While there are no comprehensive guidelines for research questions, most scholars agree that research questions should be:

1) Specific

Research questions need to clearly identify and define the focus of your research. Without sufficient detail, your research will likely be too broad or imprecise in focus to yield meaningful insights. For example, you might initially be interested in addressing this question: How should governments address the effects of climate change? While that is a worthwhile question to investigate, it’s not clear enough to facilitate meaningful research. What level of government is this question referring to? And what specific effects of global warming will this research focus on? You would need to revise this question to provide a clearer focus for your research. A revised version of this question might look like this: How can state government officials in Florida best mitigate the effects of sea-level rise?

Our interest in a given topic often starts quite broad. However, it is difficult to produce meaningful, thorough research on a broad topic. For that reason, it is important that research questions be narrow in scope, focusing on a specific issue or subtopic. For example, one of the more timely environmental science topics is renewable energy. A student who is just learning about this topic might wish to write a research paper on the following question: Which form of renewable energy is best? However, that would be a difficult question to answer in one paper given the various ways in which an energy source could be “best.” Instead, this student might narrow their focus, assessing renewable energy sources through a more specific lens: Which form of renewable energy is best for job creation?

 3) Complex

As we previously discussed, good research leads to new discoveries. These lines of inquiry typically require a complicated and open-ended research question. A question that can be answered with just a “yes” or “no” (or a quick Google search) is likely indicative of a topic in which additional research is unnecessary (i.e. there is no ongoing debate) or a topic that is not well defined. For example, the following question would likely be too simple for academic research: What is environmental justice? You can look up a definition of environmental justice online. You would need to ask a more complex question to sustain a meaningful research project. Instead, you might conduct research on the following query: Which environmental issue(s) disproportionately impact impoverished communities in the Pacific Northwest? This question is narrower and more specific, while also requiring more complex thought and analysis to answer.

4) Debatable

Again, strong research provides new answers and information, which means that they must be situated within topics or discourses where there is ongoing debate. If a research question can only lead to one natural conclusion, that may indicate that it has already been sufficiently addressed in prior research or that the question is leading. For example, Are invasive species bad? is not a very debatable question (the answer is in the term “invasive species”!). A paper that focused on this question would essentially define and provide examples of invasive species (i.e. information that is already well documented). Instead, a researcher might investigate the effects of a specific invasive species. For example: How have Burmese pythons impacted ecosystems in the Everglades, and what mitigation strategies are most effective to reduce Burmese python populations?

Therefore, research topics, including environmental science topics, are those about which there are ample questions yet to be definitively answered. Taking time to develop a thoughtful research question will provide the necessary focus and structure to facilitate meaningful research.

10 Great Environmental Science Research Topics (With Explanations!)

Now that we have a basic understanding of what qualities can make or break a research topic, we can return to our focus on environmental science topics. Although “great” research topics are somewhat subjective, we believe the following topics provide excellent foundations for research due to ongoing debates in these areas, as well as the urgency of the challenges they seek to address.

1) Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Although climate change is now a well-known concept , there is still much to be learned about how humans can best mitigate and adapt to its effects. Mitigation involves reducing the severity of climate change. However, there are a variety of ways mitigation can occur, from switching to electric vehicles to enforcing carbon taxes on corporations that produce the highest carbon emission levels. Many of these environmental science topics intersect with issues of public policy and economics, making them very nuanced and versatile.

In comparison, climate change adaptation considers how humans can adjust to life in an evolving climate where issues such as food insecurity, floods, droughts, and other severe weather events are more frequent. Research on climate change adaptation is particularly fascinating due to the various levels at which it occurs, from federal down to local governments, to help communities anticipate and adjust to the effects of climate change.

Both climate change mitigation and adaptation represent excellent environmental science research topics as there is still much to be learned to address this issue and its varied effects.

2) Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is another fairly mainstream topic in which there is much to learn and research. Although scientists have identified many forms of sustainable energy, such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric power, questions remain about how to best implement these energy sources. How can politicians, world leaders, and communities advance renewable energy through public policy? What impact will renewable energy have on local and national economies? And how can we minimize the environmental impact of renewable energy technologies? While we have identified alternatives to fossil fuels, questions persist about the best way to utilize these technologies, making renewable energy one of the best environmental science topics to research.

3) Conservation

Conservation is a broad topic within environmental science, focusing on issues such as preserving environments and protecting endangered species. However, conservation efforts are more challenging than ever in the face of a growing world population and climate change. In fact, some scientists theorize that we are currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction event. While these issues might seem dire, we need scientists to conduct research on conservation efforts for specific species, as well as entire ecosystems, to help combat these challenges and preserve the planet’s biodiversity.

4) Deforestation

The Save the Rainforest movement of the 1980s and 90s introduced many people to the issue of deforestation. Today, the problems associated with deforestation, such as reduced biodiversity and soil erosion, are fairly common knowledge. However, these challenges persist due, in part, to construction and agricultural development projects. While we know the effects of deforestation, it is more difficult to identify and implement feasible solutions. This is particularly true in developing countries where deforestation is often more prevalent due to political, environmental, and economic factors. Environmental science research can help reduce deforestation by identifying strategies to help countries sustainably manage their natural resources.

Environmental Science Topics (Continued)

5) urban ecology.

When we think of “the environment,” our brains often conjure up images of majestic mountain ranges and lush green forests. However, less “natural” environments also warrant study: this is where urban ecology comes in. Urban ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one another and their environment in urban settings. Through urban ecology, researchers can address topics such as how greenspaces in cities can reduce air pollution, or how local governments can adopt more effective waste management practices. As one of the newer environmental science topics, urban ecology represents an exciting research area that can help humans live more sustainably.

6) Environmental Justice

While environmental issues such as climate change impact people on a global scale, not all communities are affected equally. For example, wealthy nations tend to contribute more to greenhouse-gas emissions. However, less developed nations are disproportionately bearing the brunt of climate change . Studies within the field of environmental justice seek to understand how issues such as race, national origin, and income impact the degree to which people experience hardships from environmental issues. Researchers in this field not only document these inequities, but also identify ways in which environmental justice can be achieved. As a result, their work helps communities have access to clean, safe environments in which they can thrive.

7) Water Management

Water is, of course, necessary for life, which is why water management is so important within environmental science research topics. Water management research ensures that water resources are appropriately identified and maintained to meet demand. However, climate change has heightened the need for water management research, due to the occurrence of more severe droughts and wildfires. As a result, water management research is necessary to ensure water is clean and accessible.

8) Pollution and Bioremediation

Another impact of the increase in human population and development is heightened air, water, and soil pollution. Environmental scientists study pollutants to understand how they work and where they originate. Through their research, they can identify solutions to help address pollution, such as bioremediation, which is the use of microorganisms to consume and break down pollutants. Collectively, research on pollution and bioremediation helps us restore environments so they are sufficient for human, animal, and plant life.

9) Disease Ecology

While environmental science topics impact the health of humans, we don’t always think of this discipline as intersecting with medicine. But, believe it or not, they can sometimes overlap! Disease ecology examines how ecological processes and interactions impact disease evolution. For example, malaria is a disease that is highly dependent on ecological variables, such as temperature and precipitation. Both of these factors can help or hinder the breeding of mosquitoes and, therefore, the transmission of malaria. The risk of infectious diseases is likely to increase due to climate change , making disease ecology an important research topic.

10) Ecosystems Ecology

If nothing else, the aforementioned topics and their related debates showcase just how interconnected the world is. None of us live in a vacuum: our environment affects us just as we affect it. That makes ecosystems ecology, which examines how ecosystems operate and interact, an evergreen research topic within environmental science.

40 More Environmental Science Research Topics

Still haven’t stumbled upon the right environmental science research topic? The following ideas may help spark some inspiration:

  • The effects of agricultural land use on biodiversity and ecosystems.
  • The impact of invasive plant species on ecosystems.
  • How wildfires and droughts shape ecosystems.
  • The role of fire ecology in addressing wildfire threats.
  • The impact of coral bleaching on biodiversity.
  • Ways to minimize the environmental impact of clean energies.
  • The effects of climate change on ocean currents and migration patterns of marine species.

Environmental Justice and Public Policy

  • Opportunities to equalize the benefits of greenspaces for impoverished and marginalized communities.
  • The impact of natural disasters on human migration patterns.
  • The role of national parks and nature reserves in human health.
  • How to address inequalities in the impact of air pollution.
  • How to prevent and address the looming climate refugee crisis.
  • Environmentally and economically sustainable alternatives to deforestation in less developed countries.
  • Effects of environmental policies and regulations on impoverished communities.
  • The role of pollutants in endocrine disruption.
  • The effects of climate change on the emergence of infectious diseases.

AP Environmental Science Research Topics (Continued)

Soil science.

  • Effects of climate change on soil erosion.
  • The role of land management in maintaining soil health.
  • Agricultural effects of salinization in coastal areas.
  • The effects of climate change on agriculture.

Urban Ecology

  • How road construction impacts biodiversity and ecosystems.
  • The effects of urbanization and city planning on water cycles.
  • Impacts of noise pollution on human health.
  • The role of city planning in reducing light pollution.

Pollution and Bioremediation

  • The role of bioremediation in removing “forever” chemicals from the environment.
  • Impacts of air pollution on maternal health.
  • How to improve plastic recycling processes.
  • Individual measures to reduce consumption and creation of microplastics.
  • Environmental impacts of and alternatives to fracking.

Environmental Law and Ethics

  • Ethical implications of human intervention in the preservation of endangered species.
  • The efficacy and impact of single-use plastic laws.
  • Effects of religious and cultural values in environmental beliefs.
  • The ethics of climate change policy for future generations.
  • Ethical implications of international environmental regulations for less developed countries.
  • The impact and efficacy of corporate carbon taxes.
  • Ethical and environmental implications of fast fashion.
  • The ethics and efficacy of green consumerism.
  • Impacts of the hospitality and travel industries on pollution and emissions.
  • The ethical implications of greenwashing in marketing.
  • Effects of “Right to Repair” laws on pollution.

Final Thoughts: Environmental Science Research Topics

Environmental science is a diverse and very important area of study that impacts all aspects of life on Earth. If you’ve found a topic you’d like to pursue, it’s time to hit the books (or online databases)! Begin reading broadly on your chosen topic so you can define a specific research question. If you’re unsure where to begin, contact a research librarian who can connect you with pertinent resources. As you familiarize yourself with the discourse surrounding your topic, consider what questions spring to mind. Those questions may represent gaps around which you can craft a research question.

Interested in conducting academic research? Check out the following resources for information on research opportunities and programs:

  • Research Opportunities for High School Students
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Emily earned a BA in English and Communication Studies from UNC Chapel Hill and an MA in English from Wake Forest University. While at UNC and Wake Forest, she served as a tutor and graduate assistant in each school’s writing center, where she worked with undergraduate and graduate students from all academic backgrounds. She also worked as an editorial intern for the Wake Forest University Press as well as a visiting lecturer in the Department of English at WFU, and currently works as a writing center director in western North Carolina.

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Environmental Justice Research: Contemporary Issues and Emerging Topics

Environmental justice (EJ) research seeks to document and redress the disproportionate environmental burdens and benefits associated with social inequalities. Although its initial focus was on disparities in exposure to anthropogenic pollution, the scope of EJ research has expanded. In the context of intensifying social inequalities and environmental problems, there is a need to further strengthen the EJ research framework and diversify its application. This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) incorporates 19 articles that broaden EJ research by considering emerging topics such as energy, food, drinking water, flooding, sustainability, and gender dynamics, including issues in Canada, the UK, and Eastern Europe. Additionally, the articles contribute to three research themes: (1) documenting connections between unjust environmental exposures and health impacts by examining unsafe infrastructure, substance use, and children’s obesity and academic performance; (2) promoting and achieving EJ by implementing interventions to improve environmental knowledge and health, identifying avenues for sustainable community change, and incorporating EJ metrics in government programs; and (3) clarifying stakeholder perceptions of EJ issues to extend research beyond the documentation of unjust conditions and processes. Collectively, the articles highlight potentially compounding injustices and an array of approaches being employed to achieve EJ.

Environmental justice (EJ) research seeks to document and redress the disproportionate environmental burdens and benefits associated with social inequalities. Although its initial focus was on anthropogenic pollution, the scope of EJ research has expanded significantly in recent years to encompass other phenomena—for example, access to healthful food and climate change—with disparate negative impacts on particular social groups. Dimensions of social inequality examined have expanded beyond race and socioeconomic status to focus to some degree on ethnicity, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, age, as well as intersections between dimensions of inequality. In the context of intensifying social inequalities and environmental problems, there is a need to further strengthen the EJ research framework and diversify its application. This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) incorporates 19 articles that collectively advance EJ scholarship in conceptual, methodological, and empirical terms.

These articles demonstrate how the scope and purpose of EJ research have broadened significantly in recent years and continue to expand in new directions, both topically and geographically. Several articles in this Special Issue break new ground by extending the EJ research framework to consider emerging issues such as energy [ 1 , 2 ], food [ 3 ], drinking water [ 4 , 5 ], flooding [ 6 , 7 ], sustainability initiatives [ 8 , 9 ], and gender dynamics [ 10 ], including EJ concerns in Canada [ 5 , 11 ], the UK [ 12 ], and Eastern Europe [ 13 ]. Finley-Brook and Holloman [ 1 ] explore the EJ implications of energy production in the U.S. Their study demonstrates how the transition from high carbon energy sources such as coal and oil contribute to environmental injustices, and proposes priorities for a new energy justice research agenda that combines advocacy, activism, and academics. Kyne and Bolin [ 2 ] focus on nuclear hazards associated with both the U.S. weapons programs and civilian nuclear power. Their article argues that nuclear power plants, uranium mining, and waste disposal raise a variety of EJ issues that encompass distributive, procedural, recognition, and intergenerational justice. Carrel et al. [ 3 ] examine the EJ impacts of animal feeding operations in Iowa, USA. Their findings underscore the need to understand the structural, political, and economic factors that create an environmentally unjust landscape for swine production in the U.S. Midwest. Galway [ 4 ] investigates access to safe and reliable drinking water in First Nations communities in Ontario, Canada, based on drinking water advisory data. The study highlights the prevalence of drinking water advisories as a growing problem that needs to be addressed. Campbell et al. [ 5 ] focus on the governmental failures in treating the municipal water system that led to the poisoning of hundreds of children and adults in Flint, Michigan, USA, and discuss how such tragic events can be prevented in the future. Maldonado et al. [ 6 ] examine if Hispanic immigrants are disproportionately exposed to flood hazards compared to other racial/ethnic groups in the Houston and Miami metropolitan areas, USA, based on household-level survey data. Their divergent findings for these two urban areas suggest that future EJ research on flooding should distinguish between Hispanic subgroups based on nativity status and other local contextual factors. Muñoz and Tate [ 7 ] focus on the EJ consequences of disaster recovery, based on a case study of three communities in Iowa, USA, that were affected by severe flooding in 2008. Their analysis of the two federal programs that funded property acquisitions indicated that households in socially vulnerable areas were less likely to obtain full financial compensation and endured longer waiting periods before receiving acquisition funds. Jennings et al. [ 8 ] examine another emerging issue in EJ research: advancing sustainability by ensuring that urban ecosystem services and related health benefits are equally distributed across all population groups. Their article integrates complementary concepts from multiple disciplines to illustrate how cultural ecosystem services from urban green spaces are associated with equity and social determinants of health. Hornik et al. [ 9 ] explore how people conceptualize the connection between EJ and sustainability, based on analyzing stakeholder perspectives in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Bell [ 10 ] addresses an important gap in prior EJ research by providing a gender perspective and exploring women’s experience of EJ, based on a review of the existing literature and her own prior experiences as a scholar and activist. Bell’s analysis confirms that women tend to experience inequitable environmental burdens and are less likely than men to have control over environmental decisions, both of which lead to disproportionate health impacts.

In addition to broadening the scope of EJ scholarship by exploring these new frontiers, our Special Issue contributes to three specific research themes: (a) documenting connections between unjust environmental exposures and health impacts; (b) promoting and achieving EJ; and (c) clarifying stakeholder perceptions of EJ issues. These themes and related articles are described below.

Documenting connections between unjust environmental exposures and health impacts : As the EJ framework has expanded in new directions, recent research has emphasized the need to examine health outcomes and health disparities associated with exposure to environmental hazards, thus extending EJ to environmental health justice. Several articles in this Special Issue advance environmental health justice scholarship by documenting linkages between unequal environmental exposure and adverse health impacts associated with unsafe infrastructure and homes [ 5 , 14 ], substance use and addiction [ 15 ], and children’s obesity and academic performance [ 16 ]. Campbell et al. [ 5 ] provide a detailed assessment of the recent drinking water crisis and lead poisoning in Flint, USA. In addition to describing how this tragedy happened and why socially disadvantaged populations are at particularly high risk for lead exposure, Campbell et al. discuss how childhood lead exposure and Flint-like events can be prevented from occurring in the future. Mankikar et al. [ 14 ] examine whether participation in a two-month long environmental education intervention program reduces exposure to homebased environmental health hazards and asthma-related medical visits. Their home intervention program in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, focused on low-income households where children had asthma, were at risk for lead poisoning, or faced multiple unsafe housing conditions. Cleaning supplies (e.g., a microfiber cloth, soap), safety supplies (e.g., CO detector, fire alarm) and pest management tools (e.g., caulk, roach bait) were provided along with educational materials and face-to-face instruction. Their findings indicate that low-cost comprehensive home interventions are effective in reducing environmental home hazards and improve the health of asthmatic children in the short term. Mennis et al.’s [ 15 ] review article seeks to extend EJ research by including environmental factors influencing substance use disorders—one of the most pressing global public health problems. They demonstrate why inequities in risky substance use environments should be considered as an EJ issue and conclude that future research needs to examine where, why, and how inequities in risky substance use environments occur, the implications of such inequities for disparities in substance use disorders and treatment outcomes, and the implications for tobacco, alcohol, and drug policies as well as prevention and treatment programs. Clark-Reyna et al. [ 16 ] focus on chemicals known as metabolic disruptors that are of specific concern to children’s health and development. Their article examines the effect of residential concentrations of metabolic disrupting chemicals on children’s school performance in El Paso, Texas, USA. Results indicate that concentrations of metabolic disruptors are significantly associated with lower grade point averages directly and indirectly through body mass index. Findings from this study have important implications for future EJ research and chemical policy reform in the U.S.

Promoting and achieving EJ : While EJ scholars often focus on describing the injustices experienced by socially disadvantaged communities, several articles in this Special Issue direct attention toward efforts to achieve EJ through implementation of interventions to improve environmental knowledge and health [ 14 , 17 ], identification of avenues for sustainable and just community and societal change [ 1 , 8 , 9 , 13 ], and incorporation of EJ metrics in government programs [ 12 ]. In the area of interventions, Ramirez-Andreotta et al. [ 17 ] examine parental perceptions of the “report back” process after an exposure assessment. Results showed that parents coped with their challenging circumstances using data and that they made changes to reduce children’s exposure to contaminants. The findings suggest that providing information to EJ community members could be an effective strategy to reduce exposure, when immediate wider scale remediation is not possible. While Mankikar et al. [ 14 ] was summarized above, what is relevant here is that low income communities disproportionately face challenges from poor quality housing, especially renters. The promise of the type of intervention conducted by Mankikar et al. for achieving EJ is that it works to improve the environmental health of children. In terms of identifying avenues for change, Hornik et al. [ 9 ] examine stakeholder beliefs about how positive change should be made to ameliorate injustices related to water pollution in Milwaukee, WI, USA. In order to work towards EJ, the authors argue that is important to build mutual understanding among stakeholders and acknowledge the potential for complex interactions across scales of governance in order to mitigate conflicts. Related to avenues for achieving EJ, Finley-Brook and Holloman [ 1 ] emphasize the importance of involving communities in the participatory design of solutions and fairly distributing benefits. The energy case studies they review suggest that empowering approaches are feasible, but also highlight the potential for conflict between what is “green” and what is “just”. Petrescu-Mag et al. [ 13 ] explore EJ issues in a Roma community in Romania beset by environmental challenges associated with a landfill. Researchers engaged community residents in discussions about potential action options, and residents strongly preferred improving local on-site living opportunities at the dump. An examination of the process of selecting this option suggests that negotiations among stakeholders are required in order to begin to address environmental injustices. Jennings et al. [ 8 ] argue that it is critical for all communities to have access to cultural ecosystem services that influence social determinants of health in order to achieve health equity and promote physical and psychological well-being. Taking a different approach, Fairburn et al. [ 12 ] trace the development and diffusion of indices of multiple deprivation (IMD). EJ scholars have impacted public policy through the incorporation of environmental data into IMD in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and evidence suggests that IMD are potential catalysts for EJ as they enable decision-makers to make more equitable decisions.

Clarifying stakeholder perceptions of EJ issues : The EJ research framework has focused on objectively documenting conditions and processes that constitute environmental injustices. Based on this materialist foundation, less emphasis in EJ research has been placed on people’s subjectivities. Several articles in this Special Issue advance EJ research by examining and clarifying stakeholder subjectivities regarding EJ issues [ 9 , 11 , 18 , 19 ], which extends the research framework beyond the documentation of unjust conditions and processes. In Hornik et al.’s [ 9 ] study, which clarifies community group perceptions of EJ in the context of water sustainability initiatives in Milwaukee, WI, USA, stakeholders shared similar perspectives on environmental injustice as an everyday experience. However, they had divergent perspectives on how environmental injustices are produced and most effectively redressed, which has implications for promoting initiatives for EJ and sustainability. Teixeira and Zuberi [ 18 ] examine neighborhood perceptions of environmental health hazards among black youth in Pittsburgh, PA, USA. Youth identified the intersection of race and poverty, poor waste management, housing abandonment, and crime as salient neighborhood environmental concerns, and understood correctly (based on the authors’ analysis of secondary spatial data) that black vs. white neighborhoods in the city are characterized by unequal environments. Findings suggest that environmental conditions provide clearly recognizable indicators of injustice for youth, and, furthermore, that youth interpret the lack of response to unjust conditions to imply that no one cares. Songsore and Buzzelli [ 11 ] examine the role of Ontario, Canada media in amplifying people’s perceptions of wind energy development (WED) health risks and injustices. Scientific evidence for negative health effects of wind turbines is contested, yet provincial media legitimated concerns about serious health impacts, which amplified public health risk perceptions and aroused claims of procedural injustice regarding the lack of community participation in Ontario’s WED process. Findings highlight the importance of media in shaping perceptions of environmental injustice, and reveal how public perceptions of injustice may be cultivated to impede societal transitions toward renewable energy sources. Ard et al. [ 19 ] use multilevel models in a US national study of the roles of neighborhood social capital and exposure to industrial air pollution in explaining the racial gap in self-rated health between black, Hispanic, and white individuals. They found that individuals’ feelings of trust in neighbors of different social standing and perceptions of political empowerment largely accounted for lower self-rated health among African Americans (and partially accounted for it among Hispanics) relative to whites, while exposure to industrial air pollution was statistically irrelevant. Results suggest that people’s perceptions of well-being may be shaped largely by their social contexts, and that harmful environmental exposures may not always be of paramount importance in shaping those perceptions. Taken together, these articles underscore how people’s subjectivities deeply matter: they influence which phenomena are contested as EJ issues and condition possibilities for redressing environmentally unjust arrangements.

The wide array of environmental health hazards, communities, and countries represented in this Special Issue reflect the expanding scope and purpose of EJ research, which has broadened and transformed significantly in recent years. The articles cover topics ranging from energy, food, water, obesogenic chemicals, landfills, and greenspace. They document connections between unjust environmental exposures and health impacts; provide ideas for how to promote and achieve EJ; and clarify stakeholder perceptions of EJ issues. In doing so, the Special Issue illustrates the existence of multiple and compounding marginalities, but also the wide variety of approaches being employed to achieve EJ, in its many diverse forms.

Author Contributions

All three authors contributed to the organization, writing, and editing of this manuscript.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Twenty Key Challenges in Environmental and Resource Economics

  • Open access
  • Published: 16 October 2020
  • Volume 77 , pages 725–750, ( 2020 )

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  • Lucas Bretschger 1 &
  • Karen Pittel 2  

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Economic and ecological systems are closely interlinked at a global and a regional level, offering a broad variety of important research topics in environmental and resource economics. The successful identification of key challenges for current and future research supports development of novel theories, empirical applications, and appropriate policy designs. It allows establishing a future-oriented research agenda whose ultimate goal is an efficient, equitable, and sustainable use of natural resources. Based on a normative foundation, the paper aims to identify fundamental topics, current trends, and major research gaps to motivate further development of academic work in the field.

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1 Introduction

1.1 research frontier.

The research agenda in environmental and resource economics has always been very broad and dynamic, reflecting the ways our economies interact with the natural environment. While in classical economics of the eighteenth century the factor land played a dominant role, the effects of pollution externalities, resource scarcities, ecosystem services, and sustainability became important in subsequent time periods. These issues have triggered different waves of research with very prominent results, specifically on optimal policies in the presence of externalities (Pigou 1920 ), optimal extraction of non-renewable resources (Hotelling 1931 ), optimal capital accumulation in the presence of resource scarcities (Dasgupta and Heal 1974 ), and sustainable development (Hartwick 1977 ; Pearce et al. 1994 ). Of course, the list of topics has already been very diverse in the past but has increasingly become so with recent global environmental problems challenging the functioning of a world economy which is growing at a high rate and heavily relies on an international division of labour and trade.

In the past, new research challenges emerged and manifested in different ways: Some topical fields became increasingly relevant due to new technological developments, new ecological or societal challenges or new political agendas. Others arose in fields that were already well researched but rose in importance. Not all challenges were of a topical nature. In some fields, we found our methodological tool-kit not equipped to deal with new problems or in need of extension to find new (and better) answers to old questions. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that we have to reach out to other disciplines to meet new and often immense challenges. In environmental economics it is key to seek a good balance between disciplinary excellence, interdisciplinary collaboration, and political impact.

Environmental and resource economics is a dynamic field, in which new key topics emerge frequently. So, while the topical and methodological challenges that the paper identifies will be important for some time to come, they will and should also be subject to further development over the next years and decades. The paper aims to identify and address the variety of new complex problems generated by humans when they exploit natural resources and the environment. We specifically identify Twenty Challenges that we feel will be important for environmental and resource economists to address. We are aware that such a list will never be unanimously agreed upon and we do not even lay claim on the list being complete; the next section provides a background to the compilation of the list. Nevertheless, we feel it to be important to (at best) point researchers in directions important to work in in the future or (at least) to launch a new—controversial but productive—discussion on the development of our field. In any case, the paper should support the profession to operate at the research frontier generating novel theories, empirical designs, and workable policies. But, before we turn to the Twenty Challenges , we aim to motivate the framing of research in our field—past, present and future.

1.2 Identification of Research Challenges

To provide a normative foundation for our research agenda we characterize our underlying assumptions and generalized views on the nature of research in the field. This set of basic assumptions motivates the criteria of importance, activeness, and distinction of the selected topics as well as our choices with respect to design, methodology and research methods. Identifying the relevant issues, i.e. the mere choice of what to study in environmental economics imposes specific values on the subjects. In our view, the guiding principle in the normative framework is that environmental economics differs from general economics by its ontology, i.e. the system of belief that reflects the interpretation of what constitutes an important fact. It is a deep and serious concern about the state of the natural environment that drives the economic analysis of ecological processes. Nature is not simply part of the economic system but a different system with its own very complex regularities and dynamics; ecosystem values are not reducible to market exchange values. The task to integrate the ecological and economic systems to a holistic framework in an appropriate manner and to derive valid guidelines for the economy under the restrictions imposed by the environment lies at the heart of our research. Central parts of the ontology are the valuation of ecosystems, the increasing scarcities in natural resources and sinks, the effects of environmental externalities, the long-term orientation of planning, an important role of uncertainty, and the existence of irreversible processes. The anthropocentric view and the use of utilitarianism do not imply that individuals are purely self-centered and narrowly selfish. It highlights the indistinguishable role of human decision making for the future of the planet and aims at decision making that cares for efficiency, equity, and posterity. Based on a broad utilitarian setup, growth is not valued in terms of material consumption but in terms of wellbeing, which includes elements like social preferences, work-life balance, appreciation of nature etc. Posterity reflects our care for future generations, whose welfare should not be harmed by the activities of current generations. Fundamental changes of the economy e.g. the phase-out of fossil fuels, includes policy-induced decrease of activities, a role for technology, substitutability in production and consumption, a decoupling from natural resource use, and internalizing cost to correct market failures. Substantive transitions are very difficult to implement, as important lock-in mechanisms such as habit persistence, built infrastructure, and supporting policies such as subsidies stabilize current practices. To achieve a change of mindset in politics to achieve a transition to a green economy is a difficult task. A fundamental systems change, as discussed by many these days, is undoubtedly much more complex to accomplish; its impacts are uncertain and may delay the necessary steps which are important to rapidly improve the state of our ecosystems.

We acknowledge that one can always challenge an ontological position because it reflects ethical principles. In our research agenda there is no external reality, independent of what we may think or understand it to be. We reduce economic and ecological complexity through our personal system of belief to design our preferred map, which by definition is not the territory. In his survey of ecological research issues for the economists, Ehrlich ( 2008 ) refers to his ”own mental meta-analysis” to motivate his choices and to alert us to the importance of research on big issues like the meaning of life, mortality, and death. At the same time, he acknowledges that the emergence of pervasive new environmental problems, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, requires to flexibly adjust research programs to societal demand. Adjustments of the agenda may also be supply driven, when new methods allow for more effective engagement with important issues like risk and uncertainty or assessment of empirical regularities with superior estimation methods.

1.3 Forming a Research Agenda

Environmental economics is closely linked to general economics in its epistemology, i.e. the validity, scope and methods of acquiring knowledge by using models, distinguishing between positive and normative models, and testing hypotheses with empirical methods and experiments. An important cornerstone for economic research has always been the analysis of economic efficiency. Since the early days of environmental economics research, this has also held for our field whether it concerned the efficiency in the use of natural resources or the design of policies. Although research in our field has become much more interdisciplinary and policy-oriented, this still constitutes common ground. It is still a prime duty of the economist to point at the potentially vast allocative inefficiencies of the use of natural resources in pure market economies. Efficiency is a necessary condition for optimal states of the economic-ecological system and the foundation for policies maximizing social welfare.

The pursuit of optimality has to be complemented by a requirement to take care of equity and posterity enabling sustainability of development. In this long-run perspective, economics has to highlight the substitution effect as a powerful mechanism establishing consistency between humanity and its natural environment. Substitution comes in many guises, e.g. as substitution between clean and dirty production, renewable and exhaustible resources, extractive and conservationist attitude, pollution intensive and extensive consumption, etc. This dynamic analysis is crucial in many respects. It has recently been included at all levels of research in the fields. The same holds for the issue of risk and uncertainty, a pervasive topic when dealing with the environment.

In many cases, there has been a significant discrepancy between the theoretical derivation of social optima in academia and the attempts to foster their implementation under realistic policy conditions. As a consequence, policies dealing with environmental issues have been of very different quality and effectiveness. The reduction of acid rains, the protection of the ozone layer, and cutbacks of particulate matter emissions in many world regions were among the prominent successes. Global warming, extraction of rare earth elements, and loss of biodiversity are not yet addressed in a comprehensive manner. Political resistance against the protection of nature often refers to the economic costs of policies, including the concerns of growth reduction, employment loss, and adverse effect on income distribution. The lack of success in many policy areas has led to reformulation and extension of the research agenda. In the future, research should focus more on strengthening the links between theory and policy.

Our selection of the Twenty Challenges is also based on the potential of research in these areas to contribute and leverage social welfare and sustainable development. We specifically look for areas that are either inherently new to the research agenda in environmental and resource economics or in which research stagnates. We present the challenges in a specific order and like to highlight the links between them before we enter into the details. The aim of net zero carbon emission by the mid of the century dominates current policy debates and unites basically all important elements of our discipline; it thus constitutes a good starting point. Decarbonization necessarily involves a deep understanding of systems dynamics and of risk and resilience, which are presented next. An important and not sufficiently addressed research issue is the emergence of disruptive development during a substantive transition, the next challenge for our research. Extending the scope, we then address human and government behaviour. In the context of environmental policy, the popular and sometimes underrated request of an equitable use of the environment has emerged as a dominant topic, a next issue for further research. As natural capital involves many more elements than the climate, biodiversity and general ecosystem services are included in the sequence. Broadening the scope to the big problems of human behaviour with natural resources we then turn to political conflicts, population development and conflicting land use. Shifting the focus on induced movements of the labour force we go on by dealing with environmental migration and urbanization. These affect welfare of the individuals in a major way, like health and the epidemiological environment as a next research challenge. In terms of the reorganization of the transition to a green economy we highlight the central role of finance and the implementation of new measures in the dominant energy sector. The final three research challenges are motivated by advances in the methodology. Big data and machine learning offer new perspectives in sustainability research, refined methods and increasing experience improve our simulation models and structural assessment modelling, which forms the last three challenges of our list.

1.4 Links to Current Research

In order to put our agenda into a broader perspective and to concretize the selected challenges, we believe it is important to show the relationship between our research agenda and the priorities in current literature and policy debates. We have considered three main links. First, we conducted a quantitative and qualitative literature review and analyzed current research as presented at international conferences (World Conference of Environmental and Resource Economics in 2018, the SURED conference in 2018, Meetings of the American, European, and Asian Associations of Environmental and Resource Economics in 2019). The aim of this analysis was to see where our profession moves and which of the currently hotly debated topics offers a high potential for future research. Second, we took the discussions in interdisciplinary research fora into consideration to identify further fields that are of high importance for future resource use, sustainable development and environmental outcomes but have so far not been adequately addressed from an economics perspective. Information on this research was gained through interdisciplinary research initiatives (for example The Belmont Forum, Future Earth and National Research Funding Activities). Involvement in interdisciplinary and globally oriented research councils provided further access to the discussions in other disciplines. Third, we draw conclusions from current policies and news as well as our involvement in the policy arena. The authors are involved in a number of institutionalized policy-oriented activities on the regional, national and international level (Regional Climate Councils, National Climate Policy Platforms as well as the UN climate negotiations).

The paper relates to similar contributions in recent literature. Based on citation data Auffhammer ( 2009 ) identifies important topics and scholars and provides a brief historical overview of the discipline from exhaustible and renewable resources to sustainability, pollution control, development, international trade, climate change, international agreements, and non-market valuation. Polyakov et al. ( 2018 ) analyze authorship patterns using text analysis for classification of articles in Environmental and Resource Economics. Based on 1630 articles published in the Journal from 1991 to 2015 they document the importance of applied and policy-oriented content in the field. They identify non-market valuation, recreation and amenity, and conservation, as popular topics and growing when measured by both number of articles and citations. Costanza et al. ( 2016 ) investigate the most influential publications of Ecological Economics in terms of citation counts both within the journal itself and elsewhere. Important topics turn out to be social aspects of environmental economics and policy, valuation of environmental policy, governance, technical change, happiness and poverty, and ecosystem services. A contemporary analysis of how research issues have developed in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management in the time of its existence is provided by Kubea et al. ( 2018 ). These authors show that the sample of topics has broadened from the core issues of non-market valuation, cost-benefit analysis, natural resource economics, and environmental policy instruments to a more diversified array of research areas, with climate change and energy issues finding their way into the journal. In addition, increasing methodological plurality becomes apparent. They conclude that energy, development, and health are on the rise and that natural resources, instrument choice, and non-market valuation will endure; multidisciplinary work will be increasingly important. An excellent survey on research in the central field of sustainable development is provided in Polasky et al. ( 2019 ), which explicitly shows where the collaboration between economists and the other disciplines is currently insufficient and how it should be intensified in the future.

Regarding the literature that we connect our Twenty Challenges to, we naturally face the problem that some challenges have so far not been addressed adequately in the (economics) literature. In these cases we also reference papers from other disciplines. We, however, also take basic literature and recent research in environmental and resource economics into account. As we often deal with emerging topics, we cite some of this work even when not yet published. In other cases, where future research can build on or learn from past research, we also go back in time and reference older papers. Ultimately, neither our list of challenges nor the literature we base our analysis on will be satisfying to everybody. Our selection cannot be comprehensive and does not claim to be. But the specific task to identify future-oriented topics ultimately lasts on a subjective individual assessment of the authors. Nevertheless, hopefully it imparts impulses for future research in the different subfields of environmental and resource economics.

2 Twenty Challenges

The ordering of the following challenges should not be understood to perfectly reflect their individual importance (beyond what we explained in the previous sections). Also, many of the fields discussed are inherently related, creating some unavoidable overlap. We feel that efforts to bring the challenges into some complete ’natural order’ are not only doomed to fail but also would not do them justice as they relate to very different areas and can/should not be weighed against each other. Also, attempting to show their interrelations would result in a 20-by-20 matrix that would not provide more clarity.

Deep decarbonization and climate neutrality To limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius, a state of net zero greenhouse gas emissions—i.e. climate neutrality—should be reached by the mid of the century (IPCC 2018 ). The directly following and unprecedented challenge is to decarbonize the global economy in very a narrow time window (Hainsch et al. 2018 ). This holds especially as the threshold for 1.5 degrees is expected to be passed around 2040 (IPCC 2018 ). Countries must increase their NDC ambitions of the Paris Agreement more than fivefold to achieve the 1.5 degree goal (UN - United Nations 2019 ). The time window for necessary decisions is closing fast. Infrastructure that is installed today often has a life span that reaches until and beyond 2050. Decisions on investments today therefore affect the ability to reach climate targets not only in 2030 but also 2050 and beyond. And while the necessity of reaching net zero emissions by mid century is reflected by, e.g., the European Commission’ Green Deal, much uncertainty remains regarding its implementation. This holds to an even larger extent with respect to other countries and regions. The fundamental challenge is to better understand economically viable deep decarbonization paths and then to implement incentives for input substitution, technology development, and structural change. More specifically, the vision of these policies has to be long-term and reach beyond phasing out coal and increasing energy efficiency. However, despite recent research efforts in climate economics, many issues around decarbonization, negative emissions and economic development are still controversial or insufficiently understood by economists. Specifically, industry applications for which alternative technologies are not available yet as well as agricultural emissions will have to be addressed. Also, the later greenhouse gas emissions start to fall, the faster their decline will have to ultimately be in order not to overshoot temperature targets (Agliardi and Xepapadeas 2018 ), leading to an increased need for negative emissions. However, potential trade-offs and synergies in the use of land for negative emission technologies, food production and biodiversity are still underresearched. Identifying technologies today that are the most promising in the very long run is subject to high uncertainty. Yet, while investing too early might be costly, delaying investment might cost even more or might lead to a weakening of future climate targets (Gerlagh and Michielsen 2015 ). Also, transition processes may involve strong scale effects implying nonlinear development of abatement cost. Once certain thresholds are reached, lower abatement cost or even disruptive development completely altering the production process could emerge in a later phase of decarbonization. Given the dramatic increase needed in mitigation efforts to reach the 1.5 or even 2 degree target, more attention also has to be devoted to the question of adaptation. Until today, the focus of research as well as policy has been primarily on mitigation rather than adaptation, partially because of expected substitution effects between mitigation and adaptation and partially because adaptation was taken to be automatic (Fankhauser 2017 ). However, as Fankhauser lays out “knowledge gaps, behavioral barriers, and market failures that hold back effective adaptation and require policy intervention”. All of these topics present a wide scope for substantial further research.

Dynamics of the economic-ecological system Depletion of exhaustible resources, harvesting of renewable resources, recycling of raw materials, and accumulation of pollution stocks require basic societal decisions which are of an inherently dynamic nature. Whether the world society will be able to enjoy constant or increasing living standards under such dynamic natural constraints depends on another dynamic process, which is the accumulation of man-made capital. To derive the precise laws of motion in all the stock variables is challenging because general solutions of dynamic systems with several states are usually hard to obtain. An adequate procedure to obtain closed-form solutions may be to link several stocks in a reasonable way, e.g. when simultaneously dealing with resource, pollution, and capital stocks (Peretto 2017 ; Bretschger 2017b ). The specific challenge is then to find the best possible economic justification to motivate the links. One may also focus on a few stocks which are considered the main drivers of economic development and sustainable growth on a global scale (Marin and Vona 2019 ; Borissov et al. 2019 ). When resorting to numerical simulation methods it is a main challenge to provide basic economic results which are sufficiently robust and supported by ample economic intuition. Social-ecological systems are increasingly understood as complex adaptive systems. Essential features of these systems - such as nonlinear feedbacks, strategic interactions, individual and spatial heterogeneity, and varying time scales—pose another set of substantial challenges for modeling in a dynamic framework. A main challenge is the characterization and selection of dynamic paths with multiple equilibria and the overall tractablility of the models, given the diversity of interlinkages and nonlinear relationships. The complexity of economic-ecological systems lead to a main challenge for designing effective policies is taking account of network effects, strategic interaction, sectoral change, path dependencies, varying time lags, and nonlinear feedbacks have to be considered as well as different regional and temporal scales, interdependencies between ecosystems, institutional restrictions and distributional implications (see, e.g., Engel et al. 2008 ; Levin et al. 2013 ; Vatn 2010 ). Optimal policies should also acknowledge the balance between the preservation of the ecology and the development of the economy especially for countries growing out of poverty. Setting a price for ecosystem services and natural capital via policy is important for preventing innovation incentives from being skewed against maintaining natural capital and ecosystem services.

Risk, uncertainty, and resilience The vast majority of contributions in environmental economics use models with a purely deterministic structure. However, large negative environmental events require a completely different framework, which poses specific challenges for modelling. Heatwaves, floods, droughts, and hurricanes are shocks that are very uncertain, arriving at irregular times and with varying intensity. Also, risk and uncertainty about socio-economic impacts and technological development affect the optimal design of policies (see, e.g., Jensen and Traeger 2014 ). Moreover, uncertainty changes the political economy of climate policy and, finally, regulatory and policy uncertainty might create obstacles to reach climate targets through, for example, distortions of investment decisions (Pommeret and Schubert 2018 ; Bretschger and Soretz 2018 ). Stern ( 2016 ) argued forcefully that climate economics research needs to better integrate risk and uncertainty. Bigger disasters or so-called ”tipping points” such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, the collapse of Atlantic thermohaline circulation, and the dieback of Amazon rainforest involve an even higher level of uncertainty (Lenton and Ciscar 2013 ) with implications for optimal policy design and capital accumulation (Van der Ploeg and de Zeeuw 2018 ). Understanding the implications of tipping points is further complicated as the different tipping points are not independent of each other (Cai et al. 2016 ). The Economy and the Earth system both form non-deterministic systems; combining the two in an overarching framework and adding institutions for decision making multiplies the degree of complexity for adequate modelling and methods (Athanassoglou and Xepapadeas 2012 ). It is thus a main challenge for further research to provide analytic foundations and policy rules for rational societal decision-making under the conditions of risk and uncertainty up to deep uncertainty (Brock and Xepapadeas 1903 ; Baumgärtner and Engler 2018 ). Future work on policy design under deep uncertainty can build on a wide range of literature ranging from the assessment of the precautionary principle in this context to the fundamental contributions by Hansen and Sargent ( 2001 ) and Klibanoff et al. ( 2005 ) as well as on more recent analyses in the context of environmental and resource economics, e.g. Manoussi et al. ( 2018 ). An important challenge of the environmental discipline is to provide a framework for the global economy providing the conditions for resilience against major shocks and negative environmental events (Bretschger and Vinogradova 2018 ). With deep uncertainty one has to generate rules for deep resilience. Including uncertainty is especially important when environmental events do not occur constantly but cause the crossing of tipping points involving large and sudden shifts. Economic modeling needs to increasingly incorporate tipping points and the value of resilience in theory and to generate and use data supporting the empirical validity. The combination of uncertainty and potential irreversible outcomes (e.g., species extinction) is another big challenge for research.

Disruptive development and path dependencies Substantial and sometimes disruptive changes in behavioral patterns, economic structure and technologies will be required if net zero GHG emissions and the UN sustainable development goals are to be reached. On the bright side, development may exhibit favorable disruptions. Consumers’ preferences and political pressure coupled with new technology achievements may alter certain sectors in a short period of time. Similar to the communication industry which has completely changed, transportation and heat generation could and mst probably will undergo fundamental changes in the near future. The research challenge here is to provide adequate models predicting and adequately analyzing such important transitions and to highlight resisting forces at the same time. In fact, the change of trajectories in development is often hampered by technological, economic and behavioral lock-ins, resulting in path dependencies and inertia. In such situations, history influences current development through, for example, past investment in R&D, the size of established markets, increasing returns or habits acquired (Aghion et al. 2016 ; Barnes et al. 2004 ; Arthur 1989 ). Behavioral path dependencies affect acceptance and adoption of new technologies, hinder social innovation and might render policies aimed at marginal changes ineffective. They can thus postpone the transition to a low-carbon economy, harm efforts in biodiversity conservation and prolong unsustainable resource use patterns and lifestyles, even if they are welfare enhancing in the long-run (e.g. Acemoglu et al. 2012 ; Kalkuhl et al. 2012 ). Inertia and lock-ins may also be policy driven with, for example, political or economics elites trying to block change (Acemoglu and Robinson 2006 ) or clean energy support schemes fostering new technology lock-ins. Whether disruption or a lock-in emerges depends, for example, on expectations determining the steady state of an economy (Bretschger and Schaefer 2017 ). This requires nonlinearities e.g. in capital return, generating overlap regions in which the growth path is indeterminate and could be either driven by history or by expectations. The challenge is to add more substantial research into system dynamics and the political economy of change, to gain a better understanding of the different mechanisms responsible for inertia and disruptive change. So far, the role of path dependencies has often been neglected in empirical as well as theoretical analyses (Calel and Dechezlepretre 2016 ). Also, understanding the triggers or tipping points for disruptive change can help to identify policies that have a big environmental impact with moderate costs in terms of environmental policy.

Behavioral environmental economics Traditionally, economics focuses predominantly on the supply side when analyzing potentials and challenges for environmental policies. Preferences of individuals are mostly assumed to be given with economic analysis confining itself to studying the effects of changing incentives and altering constraints. The change and development of preferences over time plays only a comparative minor role for economic research. Also, the follow-up question whether policies should be allowed to tamper with preferences is rarely discussed with nudging being one big exception to this rule (e.g. Strassheim and Beck 2019 ). While the traditional, supply-side oriented analysis has provided powerful results in positive analysis, it proves to be limited in a field which inherently includes normative conclusions like environmental economics. The path toward sustainable development requires behavioral changes and political actions changing our relationship to the environment. Ultimately, environmental policies have to be decided by the same people overusing the environment in the absence of a policy. In situations where outcomes are inefficient because individuals and political actors follow their own self-interest and ignore external costs and benefits of their actions, it is clearly not sufficient for economists to advocate the implementation of environmental policies. It is crucial to understand under what conditions preferences change and agents support green policies (Casari and Luini 2009 ). So, the challenge to economic research is to better understand the evolution of green attitudes, the emergence of preferences for a clean environment, and expectations in the case of multiple equilibria (Cerda Planas 2018 ). The formation and development of preferences is also not independent from cultural, regional and community aspects. Research that ignores heterogeneity among actors or the role of social and group dynamics and only relies on the traditional, isolated analysis of individual preferences is likely to lead to an incomplete understanding of preference dynamics. As the example of discounting shows, the social context has an impact on myopic attitudes and the motivation to undertake sacrifices for a cleaner future (Galor and Özak 2016 ). Also, attention to behavioral details, that economists might find rather uninteresting from a research perspective, might influence effectiveness of policies tremendously (Duflo 2017 ). Especially with the natural environment, the choice and guise of policy instruments should take these mechanisms into account.

Institutional analysis of environmental policy Virtually every contribution to the environmental and resource economics literature culminates in one or several policy conclusions. However, these results are often received with skepticism from industry and public. Therefore, a continuing key challenge for our profession is a thorough understanding of environmental policy institutions, processes and decision-making; this task has become even more important given the enormous scale and global nature of future policies. Research in this area has, however, the advantage of already looking back on a long tradition (see e.g. the body of work by Daniel Bromley, e.g. Bromley 1989 ). Well-designed institutions support and create incentives to drive development toward a welfare-improving state. Absent, weak, inefficient, or even corrupt governments and institutions are detrimental to successful environmental policy (Pellegrini and Gerlagh 2008 ; Dasgupta and De Cian 2016 ) or might lead to detrimental effects of resource wealth (see Badeeb et al. 2017 for an overview of the related literature). To effectively increase social welfare by, for example, conservation of ecological services, one has to design policies in a way that allow implementation under realistic policy conditions (Rodrik 2008 ). Pure reference to the construct of a social planner is not sufficient. For increasing efficiency in problem solving, the ex-post evaluation of policies has to be expanded and improved. Policy evaluation should not only analyze if regulatory objectives have been reached but also which side-effects arise (OECD 2017 ). Moreover, the comparison with alternative measures and a continuous international exchange of best practices have to be supported by science. A proactive environmental policy analysis should furthermore include studying vested interests, lobbying, political power, policy communication, and voting behavior. Especially insights from behavioral economics may add to our understanding of a proper design of environmental institutions. On the international level, the adequate institutional design for global environmental policy still poses great challenges. Beyond traditional research fields like international environmental agreements in specific areas like climate change, the multi-dimensionality of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and potential trade-offs between different goals need to be explored further. This holds especially given the vast differences in income, vulnerability, and resilience between countries, as well as the need for unanimity and voluntary contributions on the UN level. Relating national to international policies has the potential to be especially rewarding in this context given the SDGs relevance for and acceptance in national as well as international politics. Insights from the analysis of institutions in traditional economic sectors (e.g. on the efficiency of capital markets) should be transferred and applied to the global level (e.g. with respect to investment in the world’s natural capital stock).

Equitable use of the environment We place equity and fairness in dealing with the natural environment on the priority list of our challenges because first and foremost equity is a central requirement for sustainability of development. By definition, sustainable development seeks an equitable treatment across different generations as well as agents living today. We also believe that for successful environmental policies, equity and fairness are crucial complements to the dominant efficiency requirement (Sterner 2011 ). It is a specific challenge of our field to study equity in an economic context and to demonstrate its importance for sustainability to mainstream economics and the public. The first aspect of the problem is the aforementioned unequal vulnerability of countries to environmental changes such as global warming. If vulnerability is higher in less developed countries, the equity perspective is especially striking. As a matter of fact, most of the climate vulnerable countries have a low average income. Global environmental policy is then motivated not only by efficiency but also by the aim of preventing increasing inequalities (Bretschger 2017a ). Global efforts are also indicated to avoid adverse feedback effects of induced inequalities like environmental migration. The second aspect is that acceptance of public policies sharply increases with the perceived fairness of the measure (Pittel and Rübbelke 2011 ; IPCC 2018 ). In the past, economists have often underestimated political resistance against efficient environmental protection, which was mostly related to negative impacts on income distribution. Take carbon pricing and emission regulation as a current example. Although evidence from cross-country studies suggests that regressivity of carbon pricing is much less frequent than often assumed in the public (Parry 2015 ), the perceived distributional impact is often very different (Beck et al. 2016 ). Therefore the impact of environmental policies on income groups, regions, and countries should be better integrated in our analysis and policy recommendations. Where efficient policies are regressive, economists have to evaluate and propose alternative or complementary policy designs. Benefits and costs need to be disaggregated by group (country) with a special attention on the poorest members of society (countries). Internationally, equity concerns need to be addressed especially in situations where the entire world benefits from the protection of natural capital and ecosystem services in poor countries (e.g., of carbon sinks and biodiversity hubs like tropical rain forests). The experience with the REDD+ process shows the complexity of designing such international approaches to incentivize and enable developing countries to protect these global public goods. More economic analysis is needed on all of the above aspects, giving rise to a rich research agenda in theory and applied work.

Loss of biodiversity and natural capital The rate of species extinction today is estimated to be up to 1000 times higher than without human interference (Rockstrom 2009 ). Human activities impact biodiversity through land use change, pollution, habit fragmentation and the introduction of non-native species but also increasingly through climate change and its interaction with already existing drivers of biodiversity change (IPCC 2002 ). In view of this, biodiversity conservation has long been a focus of politics. In 1992, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity main objectives were stated as ”the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources” (UN - United Nations 1992 ). Yet, although economists have developed conceptual and theoretical frameworks addressing the valuation of biodiversity (Weitzman 1998 ; Brock and Xepapadeas 2003 ) and despite data on valuation having become increasingly available (see, e.g. TEEB 2020 ), Weitzman ( 2014 ) points out, that an objective or even widely agreed measure of biodiversity and its value is still missing. The same holds for an underlying theory framework and a comprehensive measure of natural capital that not only includes biodiversity but also its links to regulating services (e.g., pollution abatement, land protection), material provisioning services (e.g., food, energy, materials), and nonmaterial services (e.g., aesthetics, experience, learning, physical and mental health, recreation). How biodiversity and natural capital should be measured, which societal, political and economic values underlie different measures and valuation and how ecological and economical trade-offs should be dealt with are big challenges left for future research. In order to address these issues, not only do we need to develop appropriate assessment methods, but we also need to disclose the theoretical basics of this assessment and which trade-offs go hand in hand with different assessments (Brei et al. 2020 ; Antoci et al. 2019 ; Drupp 2018 ). Completely new issues for the valuation of biodiversity and natural capital arise with the development of new technologies. Take DSI (digital sequence information), for example. DSI are digital images of genetic resources (DNA) that can be stored in databases. This gives rise not only to new challenges regarding their valuation but also about the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of these resources.

Valuing and paying for ecosystem services Related to the question of biodiversity valuation is the market and non-market valuation of ecosystem services in general and the adequate design of payment for ecosystem services (PES). Overall, research on ecosystem services valuation has made significant progress in the last decades. Nevertheless, challenges remain even in traditional valuation fields (for example, valuation of non-use or interconnected ecosystems). Other, so far underresearched areas that constitute promising fields for future research are health-related valuation aspects (Bratman et al. 2019 ) and nonmaterial ecosystem services, such as amenities of landscapes or cultural ecosystem services (Small et al. 2017 ; James 2015 ). Also, data availability remains a problem in many valuation areas. Although digitized observation and information systems offer large potentials for previously unknown data access, they also raise a whole slew of new ethical, privacy as well as economic questions, especially in areas like health. While a lot of progress has been made in the valuation of ecosystem services, their impact on decision making still lags behind. One factor contributing to this disconnect are prevalent mismatches between regional and temporal scales of economic, institutional and ecological systems that make valuation and policy design complex (Schirpke et al. 2019 ). The challenge is to develop combined natural science-economic models that allow better insights into how changes in economic systems lead to changes in the flows of ecosystem services and vice versa (Verburg et al. 2016 ). This requires a deep understanding of ecological and economic systems as well as other aspects like technologies, regional heterogeneity and system boundaries, i.e. catastrophic events. It also raises classic economic problems, such as choosing an appropriate discount rate and degree of risk aversion. Regarding tools to include ecosystem services in economic decision making, PES are a, by now, well-established (Salzman et al. 2018 ) and also quite well-researched approach for promoting environmental outcomes. Still, the literature has identified a number of aspects to be addressed in the design of PES to make them more effective as well as efficient and to simultaneously improve social outcomes (Wunder et al. 2018 ; Chan et al. 2017 ). A promising area of research rarely addressed are PES to preserve transboundary or global ecosystem services through international payment schemes (for example, in tropical forest preservation). While some work has been done on the conceptual level (e.g. Harstad 2012 ), the REDD+ process (Maniatis et al. 2019 ) and the failure of the Yasuni initiative (Sovacool and Scarpaci 2016 ) show the complexity of such approaches for which a thorough economics analysis is still missing.

Conflicts over natural resources Climate change and decarbonization transform regional and global geopolitical landscapes and might give rise to future domestic as well as international conflicts (Mach et al. 2019 ; Carleton and Hsiang 2016 ). First, decarbonization changes the role of resources and of resource- and energy-related infrastructures. Climate policies affect the rent allocation between different fossil fuels like, for example, coal and natural gas, but might also change the overall rent level (Kalkuhl and Brecha 2013 ). Asset stranding can endanger stability in resource (rent) dependent countries. Conflicts may also arise over materials critical to new, low-carbon energy technologies like rare earth elements but also over access to sustainable energy (Goldthau et al. 2019 ; O’Sullivan et al. 2017 ). Further research is needed to design policies that are better equipped to reduce the vulnerability of economies to changes in resource availability and resource rents. This opens up challenges for future research, especially as restrictions from very diverse institutional capacities have to be considered to render policies efficient and effective. Second, climate change will affect the ability to meet basic human needs through food, land and water. Sulemanaa et al. ( 2019 ) find a positive effect of the occurrence of temperature extremes on conflict incidence. They stress the need for more advanced spatial econometric models to identify effects that are transmitted across space. More research is also needed on the role of institutions and interaction with other phenomena like population dynamics, migration, and environmental degradation. Currently, the role of climate for conflict is still small compared to other causes, many linkages between conflicts and climate change as well as other factors promoting conflict are still uncertain (Mach et al. 2019 ). The challenge to economic research is to get early insights into the nexus of historical and cultural factors, vested interests, population dynamics and climate change in order to help to prevent resource-related conflicts.

Population development and use of the environment Already since antiquity, demographic analysis has been a central topic of human thinking. With the Malthusian predictions of catastrophes caused by population growth, the topic is firmly related to the natural environment and the limits of planet Earth. While limited food production was the dominant topic in the 18th century, the impact of world population on global commons, availability of renewable and exhaustible resources, and ecosystem services have been dominant topics in the last decades. Still, while it is often argued in the public and in natural sciences that world population size should be a concern because of ecological constraints, economics has largely left the topic on the side; the few exceptions (Peretto and Valente 2015 ) and (Bretschger 2013 , 2020 ) point in a different direction, namely the compatibility of population growth and sustainable development under very general conditions. Current trends of demographic transition show significant signs of population degrowth for leading economies while trends for developing countries vary substantially (UN - United Nations 2019 ). Population is forecasted to expand especially in Africa, accounting for more than half of the world’s population growth over the coming decades, raising questions about the effect of this population increase on fragile ecosystems, resource use and ultimately the potential for sustainable growth (African Development Bank 2015 ). Population growth will also promote further urbanization and migration triggered by environmental and resource depletion but also giving rise to new environmental problems (Awumbila 2017 ). Challenges from population development and environment are thus closely linked to the other research topics highlighted in this article. However, population growth is not exogenously given but determined by economic, social as well as environmental factors. Education and income or economic development have long been established as crucial for fertility (see e.g. the reviews of the literature provided by Kan and Lee 2018 ; Fox et al. 2019 ). To integrate these findings into a holistic approach is a mediating challenge for future research. Climate change might affect these channels in different ways, potentially exacerbating global inequality (Casey et al. 2019 ). However, population development, fertility, and mortality are not only affected by climate change but also by other environmental stresses like air pollution (Conforti et al. 2018 ). A successful combination of endogenous fertility and mortality with natural resource scarcity, agricultural production, and pollution accumulation as well as capital and knowledge build-up in a comprehensive framework is a respectable challenge for an economic modeller; we suggest that in the future it should be considered by economists more intensively.

Land use and soil degradation The terrestrial biosphere with its products, functions and ecosystem services is the foundation of human existence, not only for food security but far beyond. Currently, about a quarter of ice-free land area is degraded by human impacts (IPCC 2019 ). The optimal use of scarce land resources becomes an even more urgent topic in the face of the biodiversity crisis and the onset of climate change. This holds especially as the physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food is the basic precondition for human existence. Climate change challenges this access on different levels. On the one hand, climate change increases the pressure on productive land areas (due to extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, forest fires or the shifting of climatic zones). On the other hand, land plays a major role in many climate protection scenarios by reducing emissions from land use and land use change, protecting carbon stocks in soils and ecosystems, and conserving and expanding natural carbon sinks. Also, the capture and storage of CO 2 through carbon dioxide removal technologies plays an increasing role for reaching the Paris climate goals (IPCC 2018 ). The induced increase in the demand for the different services from land inevitably implies trade-offs. However, neither the trade-offs nor the potentials for synergic uses are, as of now, comprehensively understood from an economic point of view and thus pose a challenge for future research. While there is a growing literature on negative emission technologies, their costs, potentials and side effects (Fuss et al. 2019 and references within) as well as on the interaction between climate goals and other SGDs on the global level (von Stechow et al. 2016 ), many research questions still remain to be addressed (Minx et al. 2018 ). This concerns especially a better understanding of opportunity costs, governance requirements, regional and distributional effects as well as of acceptance and ethical considerations. With respect to land degradation and land use for food production, changing climate and weather conditions as well as regional population pressure may raise the rate of land degradation (Fezzi and Bateman 2015 ), hurting food security and calling for preservation policies (Brausmann and Bretschger 2018 ). The overuse of ecosystems like forests and water, which protect and complement land, can accelerate the risk of adverse shocks and thus lower soil fertility, which reveals the close link between the different research subjects. However, much of the agricultural research in this field is still quite distant from mainstream environmental economics which can harm research productivity substantially. It remains a challenge to integrate agricultural and environmental research better, for example by bringing together food production, population, and the environment into a macrodynamic framework (Lanz et al. 2017 ).

Environmental migration Migration in times of climate change is an extraordinarily complex, multicausal and controversial challenge (Adger et al. 2014 ). Heatwaves, droughts, hurricanes, and rising sea levels are likely to motivate or even force a growing number of people to leave their homes moving to presumably safer places. Climate-related migration can take a variety of different forms (Warner 2011) from voluntary to involuntary, from short- to long-distance and from temporary to permanent. Migration decisions are usually based on different motives and personal circumstances (climatically, politically, economically, socially), leading to heterogeneous reactions to climate events and making it often problematic to identify and delineate climate-induced migration. Due to these and other methodological difficulties and the small number of studies so far, no globally reliable forecasts for climate induced migration exist (WBGU - German Advisory Council on Global Change 2018a , b ). At present, the forecasted magnitude of the phenomenon ranges from 25 million up to 1 billion people by 2050 (Ionesco et al. 2017 ). Much of this migration can be expected to take place within countries, for example, from rural to urban areas or from drylands to coastal zones (Henderson et al. 2014 ) with environmental migration being one possible adaptation and survivor strategy in the face of climate change (Millock 2015 ). Given the uncertainty in future migration projections, the challenge is to improve migration models (Cattaneo et al. 2019 ) which includes a better understanding and integration of the microfoundation of agents’ migration decisions. Migration, and especially mass-migration, can have a profound impact on the environment of the new as well as the old settlement location and on their economic structure. Labor and commodities markets will be affected the most, with challenges arising also for education and health systems, government budgets and public spending. By affecting public institutions and the skill-mix of the labor force, migration alters economic development both in the sending and in the receiving countries or regions. More research is needed on these impacts. The influx of environmental migrants to new settlement locations may also trigger hostile attitudes and lead to clashes and even armed conflicts. The migrants may be perceived as rivals for scarce resources (land, clean water) or jobs. The situation may be aggravated by lack of political stability and poor-quality political institutions. Dealing with these aspects gives rise to new challenges in environment and resource economics. Traditional analysis of economic costs and benefits of migration have to be complemented by behavioral economic and political economy analyses.

Urbanization as a key for environmental development In the last 70 years, the urban population has increased fivefold with more than half of the world’s population living in cities today and forecasts projecting the share of urban population to rise to almost 70% in 2050 (UN - United Nations 2018 ). Cities are responsible for about 70% of the world energy use and global CO \(_{2}\) -emissions (Seto et al. 2014 ) and ecological footprints are positively correlated to the degree of urbanization (WBGU - German Advisory Council on Global Change 2016 ). In 2014, about 880 million people were living in slums (UN - United Nations 2016 ) elucidating the problems to make urban development environmentally as well as economically and socially sustainable. The speed of urbanization is projected to be the fastest in low and middle income countries, especially in Africa and Asia (UN - United Nations 2018 ), leading to new challenges for the provision of infrastructure, housing, energy supply, transport and even health care. Climate change can be expected to not only foster urbanization trends (Henderson et al. 2017 ) but also increase the magnitude of urbanization-related challenges. Urban areas are often located close to the coast or rivers basins, making them susceptible to rising sea levels and impacts of extreme weather events. Risks can be expected to be higher for poor households due to settlement in less safe areas and poorer housing (Barata et al. 2011 ), potentially perpetuating existing inequalities. On the other hand, cities might offer more efficient adaptation potentials. To date the consequences of climate change for cities and urbanization are still to be determined in detail but depend heavily on factors like location, size and level of development as well as governance capacities. Making cities, their population and their infrastructure resilient to climate change will be decisive for future development. The main challenge here is to better connect the research fields of environmental and urban economics to understand the drivers and dynamic effects of climate change on urbanization and resulting economic development, on adaptation costs and benefits and on the role of institutions. Insights from regional, political and behavioral economics can help shape effective governance to enhance resilience of cities to climate change.

Health and epidemiological environment Environmental degradation can have profound implications for human health. These implications lead to direct as well as indirect challenges for economic decision making, economic development and thus economic research. While many of these challenges might not be new per se, they can be severely exacerbated by, for example, climate change. Economic implications of long-term increases in vector-borne diseases and heat stress as well as pandemics like the COVID-19 and ozone formation still remain to be analyzed in depth, as do the costs and benefits of adaptation measures dedicated to mitigating these effects (Mendelsohn 2012 ). Climate change also affects human health indirectly through impacts on economic development, land use, and biodiversity - and vice versa. Failed emission reductions and bad environmental management especially impact developing countries negatively through direct effects on health but also through health effects of delayed poverty reduction (Fankhauser and Stern 2020 ). Exposure to diseases or epidemics can increase the risk of civil conflicts and violence (Cervellati et al. 2016 , 2018 ). While research has addressed effects of life-expectancy, diseases and premature mortality on long-run economic development (e.g. Ebenstein et al. 2015 ; Acemoglu and Johnson 2007 ), a thorough analysis of the climate-health-development nexus is still missing. Overall, most research carried out on the interaction between environment, climate and human health has focused on physical health and mortality. The effects of air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels or agriculture on premature deaths, cardiac conditions and respiratory diseases, for example, received not only renewed interest in the wake of recent scandals (see e.g. Alexander and Schwandt 2019 ) but have been an active field of research for a number of years (Schlenker and Walker 2016 ; Tschofen et al. 2019 ). Mental health implications like stress, anxiety or depression on the other hand have received much less attention although, for example, Chen et al. ( 2018 ) in a study on air pollution in China estimate these effects to be on a similar scale to costs arising from impacts on physical health. Also, Danzer and Danzer ( 2016 ) find substantial effects of a large energy-related disaster (the Chernobyl catastrophe) on subjective well-being and mental health. Economic research should take up the challenge and put more effort into the economic evaluation of mental health related effects of climate change and environmental degradation in general. Potential to analyze these and other health-related questions have risen substantially in the last years, method-wise as well as topical, with new large data sets becoming available. Big data from insurance companies, satellite imagery on pollution dispersion and effects of draughts, for example, can provide new insights into the dynamics between environmental changes and health. But digital technologies themselves also generate new research questions addressing, for example, risks, costs and benefits of these new technologies.

Carbon exposure and green finance The impact of climate change and of climate policy on the financial system is a topic of increasing public concern. The transition to a low-carbon economy poses a lot of challenges not only from physical risks and damages but also from transition risks. These accrue in such different areas as climate-related policy making, altered market behavior, changes in international trade patterns, technology development, and consumer behavior. To support a safe and gradual transition to a low-carbon economy, the financial sector needs to evaluate and eventually address the new risks associated with climate change and decarbonization in an efficient manner. There is widespread concern that financial markets currently lack sufficient information about the carbon exposure of assets, resulting in risks from climate change and climate policy for investments (Karydas and Xepapadeas 2018 ). If not anticipated by the markets, climate shocks also cause asset stranding, i.e. unanticipated and premature capital write-offs, downward revaluations, and conversion of assets to liabilities (Rozenberg et al. 2020 ; Bretschger and Soretz 2018 ). The same holds true for climate policies which are not or cannot be correctly anticipated by investors (Dietz et al. 2016 ; Stolbova et al. 2018 ; Sen and von Schickfus 2020 ). The growing awareness of these risks is reflected in the attention that policy makers have devoted to the development of transparency improving information systems and indicators in recent years. However, challenges related the design of these systems and indicators, e.g. with respect to an accurate and encompassing risk assessment, still remain. The importance of addressing these challenges is excerbated by prevalent network effects and counterparty risks that transmit climate-induced financial shocks from individual firms to the broad public holding their capital in stocks of fossil-fuel-related firms, investment funds, and pension funds, which all could suffer from stranded assets (Battiston et al. 2017 ). Divestment campaigns, shareholder engagement, and mandatory disclosure of climate-relevant financial information by companies and investors warrant further theoretical and empirical analysis. Also, a better understanding of the economics behind financing instruments like green bonds is only recently emerging (Agliardi and Agliardi 2019 ). Despite some early studies there is a knowledge gap with respect to the extent of climate and policy risks for central banks and regarding the potential significance of different channels connecting the risks in the real economy with monetary policy. Given the environmental and international policy perspective of the climate problem, the specific contribution of the financial sector and the central banks in the architecture of global climate policy has to be subject to further investigation.

Energy system transformation The transition from a fossil-based to a green economy is needed to combat climate change but requires a thorough transformation of energy systems (Pommeret and Schubert 2019 ) in developed as well as in developing countries. In industrialized countries, challenges arise from the structural transformation of highly complex energy systems and their linkage with other economic sectors. While one hundred years ago, it was the rapid dissemination of fossil-based industrial processes, transportation, and heating that resulted in wide-spread sectoral change, similar adjustments can be expected with the increasing importance of electricity for decarbonization. However, changing the use of energy technologies in practice involves decisions on different levels and constitutes a highly nonlinear process. Future power generation in many countries will increasingly rely on renewable energies like wind and solar energy. To offset intermittent power generation, more and better storage capacities of batteries or pumped hydropower will be needed (Ambec and Crampes 2019 ). Synthetic fuels, heat pumps, fuel cells and e-mobility will increasingly use electricity to replace fossil fuels not only in the power sector but also in traffic and heat generation. While the adoption of renewable technologies like wind and solar was often much faster than predicted in the past, the critical mass of market penetration has still to be reached in other areas to benefit from potential scale effects and cost decreases. Shape and speed of the energy transition are, however, highly dependent on a political process which is hard to predict for market participants. Policy and ecological risks, together with the long-run character of the energy and related infrastructure investments, pose a big challenge for research and practice. In this context, it is especially the economic potential of green hydrogen and/or synthetic fuels that is controversially discussed at present. As production costs are expected to fall (Glenk and Reichelstein 2019 ), interest in hydrogen is increasing sharply (IEA 2019 ) and new research questions arise. For developing countries, clean and decentralized renewable energy technologies offer big potentials for electrification and economic development. However, despite the potential for decarbonization and the reduction of other externalities and health hazards and despite the fact that more than 90% of the annual increase in power generation comes from emerging economies, research on the development and adoption of clean energy technologies still focuses mainly on the developed world. More research on the barriers and challenges for adoption in developing countries is needed, including sustainable financing, institutional framing and the design of regionally tailored policies.

Sustainability perspective on digitalization Digitalization and artificial intelligence are often seen as opportunities for enhancing the efficiency of energy and resource use. They offer new opportunities for circular economy, agriculture, monitoring of ecosystems and biodiversity, sustainable finance and decarbonization (see WBGU 2019 and literature within). However, they may also accelerate energy and resource use, increase inequality between regions and income groups and endanger sustainable development. Digitalization offers new access to markets, impacts market forms and shapes consumer behavior all of which can have extensive implications for the ecological, social and economic dimensions of sustainable development. Digitalization is a cross-cutting theme that reaches across spatial scales (from regional development to globalization) as well as temporal scales (from short-run impacts on energy systems to long-run adaptation to climate change). So far, the potentials and challenges for sustainable development that are associated with digital technologies have mostly been addressed outside of environmental and resource economics. The focus has been on topics such as data security and privacy or, for example, on the implications of the ”fourth industrial revolution” on employment and labor markets. Costs and benefits of digitization, the design and effectiveness of policies in industrialized as well as developing countries have garnered much less attention in the context of environmental, resource, energy and climate economics. Also, impacts of digitization on the behavior of economic agents resulting in, for example, rebound effects or changes in consumption patterns and environmental awareness, have not been addressed comprehensively (Gossar 2015 ). In all of these areas, our limited knowledge base creates opportunities and challenges for future research in the field. But, digitalization not only creates new research questions, it also provides new means to answer them. It has led to new developments in data science, big data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence that allow new insights into, for example, material flows, emission patterns and technology diffusion as well as the optimal design, implementation and effectiveness of regulation (Fowlie et al. 2019 ; Weersink et al. 2018 ; Graziano and Gillingham 2015 ).

Quantitative analysis of environmental use Recently, there has been a significant shift in the empirical methods used in economics from traditional regression analysis to random assignment and quasi-experiments. Arguably this can improve the capturing of causal relationships and reduce the biases of traditional study designs. In environmental economics, experimental and quasi-experimental approaches have been applied mainly for capturing individuals’ or firms’ decisions on the use of land, water, resources, and energy (e.g. Allcott 2011 ; Duflo et al. 2013 ; Deschenes et al. 2017 ). Wider applications of these rigorous methods in environmental economics and well-suited empirical designs are desirable but certainly challenging e.g. when assessing aggregate environmental costs from climate change or biodiversity loss. An important but underrated field in applied environmental economics is the ex-post empirical assessment of environmental policies. The challenge is not only to identify environmental externalities, causalities, and impact intensities but also to provide an accurate valuation of the cost of policies, because they vary widely especially in environmental economics. The traditional empirical methods remain to be important and are not simply replaced. The same holds true for empirical designs in a time, cross-country, or panel structure. The increasing availability of large or very large datasets with observations varying widely across time and space offers a different set of options to provide evidence on the impact of environmental damages or policies to abate them (e.g. Currie and Walker 2011 ; Martin et al. 2014 ; Zhang et al. 2018 ). Fast-growing computational power and machine learning provide even more avenues for fruitful applications in environmental economics (see e.g. Abrell et al. 2019 ) but the challenge to use computer power wisely and to derive results which are sufficiently robust remains demanding .

Structural assessment modelling and modelling transparency In an effort to better understand the ramifications of political decisions and technological developments on climate change, energy supply and resource extraction (to name but a few examples), increasingly sophisticated numerical models have been developed in recent decades. It is evident that quantitative economics analysis is important for policy advice. Yet despite their complexity, these models usually still adopt some very simplifying and sometimes ad-hoc assumptions. In particular assumptions used in integrated valuation models have come under heavy criticism in recent years (Stern 2013 ; Pindyck 2013 ). Simplifications concern market structures and market failures, the integration of risk and uncertainty as well as societal, institutional and cultural detail. Also, manifestations of climate change and damages come at very different regional and temporal scales, making a truly integrated assessment of the climate-ecosystem-economy nexus next to impossible. We see it as a major challenge for future research to provide more accurate foundations for integrated assessment models. While simplifications are needed to reduce computational complexity, they raise the question to which extent the results obtained render reliable insights into future developments. Asking for models that are detailed in every dimension and can answer every question resembles of course the search for the holy grail. However, the need for a better understanding of the model dynamics has already led to the development of a new generation of models which have a stronger foundation in theory (Golosov et al. 2014 , Bretschger and Karydas 2019 ). A better understanding of the limits of models and of the questions specific models can and cannot address is still needed as well as transparency in model development. More applied studies, assessments of global environmental trends under different economic assumptions often use ”scenarios” to describe future trajectories. The scenarios are mostly based on expert opinion and do not rely on estimates about the likelihood that such a trajectory will occur. It is also critical that the economics behind the scenarios is often neglected. Prominently, per capita income can be projected using endogenous growth theory, while population development can be evaluated using state-of-the-art theories on fertility and morbidity.

3 Conclusions

This article set out to highlight a number of challenges that are highly relevant for future research in the field of environmental and resource economics. The focus was mainly, although not exclusively, on topical issues. We only briefly touched upon on some methodological advancements that might have the power to further parts of our field. Big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence hold high promise in this regard but their limits and potentials for environment, climate and resource economics have yet to be fully understood.

It should have become clear, that a number of the challenges presented can only be addressed adequately by interdisciplinary research teams with relevant disciplines ranging from climate science, (computer) engineering, sociology, virology to soil sciences. In many cases, economists’ analysis and the derivation of sound policy recommendations require the knowledge available in these fields. However, such research cooperations are by no means one-way streets: Other disciplines need the input of economists in order to assess future development scenarios and implementability of solutions. The knowledge and data required for economics analysis does not always exist yet, but interdisciplinary cooperation can help to identify and close these gaps. Overall, the less economists have already worked on specific challenges, the harder it is to assess best research strategies and the potential for success. Take the digitization-sustainable-development-nexus as an example: best research strategies and success are extremely difficult to predict as not only is the related economics research still in its infancy but also the field itself is extremely dynamic.

As already pointed out in the beginning: We are aware that our selection is bound to create discontent and disagreement. Having said this, it should also be stated that we expect some of our challenges to be more or less universally agreed upon. This holds especially for the broader topics: for example, how to accomplish deep decarbonization; how to deal with risk and uncertainty; or how to assess the role of disruptive development. One reason for this lies in the encompassing nature of these topics. They are relevant for many of the other fields that we have pointed out: For behavioral analyses, the capacity to deal with disruptive change in the face of risk and uncertainty are essential. Loss of biodiversity and natural capital, land degradation, conflicts over resources and migration are exacerbated by climate change. The potential of digitization for sustainable development constitutes disruptive change in itself. Yet, all of these fields are not merely subfields of the more overarching themes, they raise important research questions in their own right.

Nevertheless, it is to be expected that it will be the more specific fields over which disagreement will arise: Are ‘land use and soil degradation’ more important than ‘fisheries’? Is the ‘institutional analysis of environmental policies’ of higher relevance than the ‘development of alternative welfare concepts’ (to pick out some random examples). Of course, there are more fields that could have been included and also, of course, there is no objective criterion for the inclusion or exclusion of fields. The selection of the challenges is based on the analysis and criteria presented in the first section but it is ultimately ours; we are happy if this paper contributes to a lively and constructive discussion about the future of our field.

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When choosing an environmental research topic, it is essential to consider what makes good environmental topics. Below is an expert list outlining what your topic should be like:

  • It should be interesting and relevant to your study field.
  • It's essential to consider the topic's potential implications on environment-related policies. Think about the possible positive or negative effects this topic could have when implemented in terms of protecting our environment.
  • A good topic should be specific enough to provide a focus for your research paper and allow you to explore a particular issue in depth.
  • The research topic should be feasible and manageable to ensure that you can find the necessary information and resources.
  • Environmental sciences research topics should be current and relevant to ecological developments.

How to Choose Environmental Science Topics?

When choosing research topics for environmental science, it is essential to research the available information and determine its relevance. It all depends on whether the research topic is feasible and has the potential for exploration. Environmental issue topics should be well-defined and interesting to the researcher. The reason is that the researcher should be able to provide solutions or make suggestions on improvement strategies. You can follow the below steps when choosing environmental science topics for research:

Step 1: Identify topics that are relevant to your research context. Step 2: Develop a list of research areas by extracting critical concepts from the available literature.

Step 3: Select interesting and feasible topics by considering the methods available for analysis.

Step 4: Analyze these topics to identify the gaps in current research and formulate questions for further investigation. Step 5: Review the available literature to gain insights about the chosen topic and develop a research proposal.

Step 6: Consult experts in this field to get feedback and refine the proposed research.

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List of Environment Research Paper Topics

Environmental topics for a research paper can be overwhelming to navigate due to the vast number of issues you can discuss in your article. To help narrow down your research paper search, below is a list of environmental research topics that include climate change, renewable energy, ecology, pollution, sustainability, endangered species, ecosystems, nature, and water management. You can choose one of them as a guide to writing an excellent essay

Environmental Research Topics on Climate Change

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues that humanity is currently facing due to increased temperature levels. Climate change is amongst the most debated environmental research topics among researchers, policymakers, and governments. Here are critical areas related to climate change that you can use for your environmental science research paper topics:

  • Causes and effects of climate change.
  • Climate change adaptation strategies.
  • Climate change impact on rural communities.
  • Role of renewable energy sources in mitigating climate change.
  • Carbon dioxide emission policies.
  • Global warming and its impact on ocean acidification.
  • Social effects of climate change.
  • Permafrost melting and its implications.
  • Role of international organizations in climate change.
  • Climate change and forest fire: examining the role of climate change on wildfire season, frequency, and burned area.

Environmental Science Research Topics on Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is essential due to its potential to reduce ecological damage from burning fossil fuels and provides valuable topics in environmental science. You can use renewable energy technologies as a cleaner alternative for generating electricity and heating. In addition, renewable energy is crucial for cooling homes and factories in the world. The following are environmental science topics for research paper on renewable energy:

  • Renewable energy types, sources, and their impact on the environment.
  • Economic benefits of renewable energy.
  • Research on new technologies in renewable energy.
  • Role of renewable energy in protecting businesses from legal actions.
  • Hydropower and its role in renewable energy.
  • Chemical batteries for renewable energy storage.
  • Green microgrids in optimizing renewable energy usage.
  • Ocean energy and its effects on the environment.
  • Geothermal drilling and its consequences.
  • Biomass resources and their use in renewable energy.

Environment Research Topics on Ecology

Ecology studies how living organisms interact with each other and their environment. Also, it is an important area of research for understanding how the environment affects the function of various species and ecosystems. It also gives a background for one of the best environment research paper topics. Below are topics for environmental research paper on ecology:

  • Biodiversity conservation strategies.
  • Impact of pollution on ecosystems.
  • Ecological research on saving endangered species from extinction.
  • Role of environment in migrations patterns of animals.
  • Habitat fragmentation effects on the environment.
  • Ecological implications of climate change.
  • Ecology and pest control strategies.
  • Ecological effects of deforestation.
  • Ecology and conservation of marine life.
  • Ecological consequences of urbanization.

Research Topics in Environmental Science About Pollution

Pollution is an issue at the forefront of scientific research. As one of the environmental science paper topics, it offers insights into how pollution destroys the environment and its negative impact on human and animal health. Stated below are hot environmental science research topics on pollution which you can use for your article:

  • Air pollution: causes & effects.
  • Water pollution and its consequences for people and other living organisms.
  • Issue of urban & industrial pollution.
  • Noise pollution and environment-related health risks.
  • Marine plastic pollution in oceans.
  • Radiological waste disposal policies.
  • Nuclear energy, radiation & health impacts.
  • Sustainable waste management solutions.
  • Impact of pollution on biodiversity.
  • Soil pollution and its effects on agriculture.

Environmental Topics for Research Papers on Sustainability

One of the many topics for environmental research papers is sustainability. Sustainability is an important topic to explore, as it involves finding a way for humans to reduce their ecological footprint and ensure that the environment can recover from our activities. Stated below are environmental topics for research paper on sustainability which you can explore:

  • Strategies for sustainable development.
  • Renewable energy sources and their effects.
  • Environmental sustainability and its economic benefits.
  • Sustainable energy sources and their effects.
  • Implications of sustainable agriculture on the environment.
  • Ecological impacts of sustainable forestry.
  • Social implications of renewable energy use.
  • Strategies for mitigating ecological impact from unsustainable development.
  • Psychological effects of ecological awareness on sustainable practices.
  • Influence of ecological sustainability on economic growth.

Environmental Topics to Write About Endangered Species

Endangered species are one of the environmental topics of great importance to research and find solutions for their conservation. Poaching, habitat destruction, and climate change negatively impact endangered species. Also, human activities have put other species at risk of extinction by competing for resources as well as introducing invasive species. Below is a list of cool environment topics to write about endangered species:

  • Endangered species conservation.
  • Causes & effects of habitat fragmentation.
  • Wildlife conservation strategies.
  • Climate change impacts on endangered species.
  • Illegal wildlife trade and trafficking.
  • Marine protected areas for conserving marine life.
  • Ecological restoration and reintroduction programs.
  • Endangered species in developing nations.
  • Human rights & animal welfare laws .
  • Captive breeding for conservation purposes.

Environmental Research Paper Topics on Ecosystems

Ecosystems are fascinating to explore in environmental paper topics because they contain a variety of living organisms and are a complex web of interactions between species, the environment, and humans. The subject provides environmental issues topics for research paper essential in exploring the dynamics of ecosystems and their importance. Below is a list of topics for environmental science research paper:

  • Ecosystem services & their value.
  • Climate change impacts on ecosystems.
  • Hydrological cycle & effects on ecosystems.
  • Ecological restoration & biodiversity conservation.
  • Invasive species & their impact on native species.
  • Biodiversity hotspots: areas of high endemism.
  • Soil degradation & its impact on ecosystems.
  • Sustainable forestry practices.
  • Ecological restoration of wetlands.

Environmental Topics About Nature

Nature is a broad topic that includes ecological conservation, protection, and sustainability issues. Environmental research topics about nature allow us to explore areas that focus on preserving and conserving the environment. Research papers about nature can provide insight into utilizing nature as a resource, both from a practical and ecological aspect. Below is a list of environment topics that you can explore in your essays:

  • Nature conservation & preservation strategies.
  • Climate change effects on natural environments.
  • Natural resource management strategies.
  • Policies for natural resources management.
  • Impact of human development on wildlands.
  • Sustainable use of natural resources.
  • Role of ethics in nature conservation.
  • De-extinction: pros & cons of bringing back extinct species.
  • Protected areas & conservation of rare species.

Environmental Issues Topics on Water Management

Water management is an issue that has a significant impact on the environment. Exploring a topic related to water management can provide experts, among others, with insights into environmental science issues and their implications. When it's time to write your project related to water management, you can explore the following topics for environmental issues:

  • Water pollution & its control.
  • Groundwater management strategies.
  • Climate change impact on water resources.
  • Integrated water resources management.
  • Wetland conservation & restoration projects.
  • Industrial effluents role in water pollution.
  • Desalination technologies for freshwater production.
  • Urbanization impact on groundwater resources.
  • Inland & coastal water management strategies.
  • Wastewater treatment & reuse technologies.

Environmental Science Topics in Different Areas

Environmental science studies ecological processes and their interactions with living organisms. Exploring environmental science related topics can provide valuable insights into environmental science issues, their ecological implications, and conservation efforts. In addition, these topics can also be explored in different areas, providing a comprehensive understanding of how different factors impact the environment. This section delves into various environmental science topics for projects related to law, justice, policy, economics, biology, chemistry, and health science.

Environmental Law Research Topics

Environmental law governs environmental processes and their interactions with living organisms. Delving into environmental law can uncover invaluable information on environment paper topics, ranging from legal matters and their consequences to preservation initiatives. Students can use the following environmental issue topics for research papers for their essays:

  • Climate change liability & lawsuits.
  • Strategies for conservation and protection under environmental law.
  • Consequences of non-compliance with regulations on the environment.
  • Impact of trade agreements on environment protection.
  • Regulatory strategies for hazardous waste disposal.
  • Strategies for enforcement and compliance with environment-related laws.
  • International environment treaties and their implications.
  • Effects of climate change legislation on the environment.
  • Corporate environmental policies and regulations and their effects.
  • Role of law in mitigating environment-related issues.

Environmental Justice Research Topics

Environmental justice seeks to ensure equitable treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in ecological protection, regardless of their race, sex, or economic status. Environment topics related to justice can provide valuable insights into ecological issues and their impacts. Listed below are justice-related Environmental topics to research:

  • Implications of unequal access to resources.
  • Disproportionate impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations.
  • Consequences of marginalization of marginalized communities from environmental processes.
  • Links between poverty and environment degradation.
  • Effects of non-participation in environment-related decision-making.
  • Policies to ensure access to clean air and water.
  • Impact of social inequality on environment protection.
  • Intersection between gender, race, and environment justice.
  • Ecological consequences of corporate negligence of marginalized communities.
  • Disproportionate implications of climate change on vulnerable populations.

Environmental Policy Research Paper Topics

Environmental policy is a set of laws, rules, and regulations created to protect the environment as well as its resources. Studying environment-related policies provides an area for students to explore a range of subjects related to the environment, ranging from local to global. Below are potential environmental sciences research topics for your reference.

  • Environmental policy initiatives' implications on global climate change.
  • Effectiveness of carbon taxes for air pollution control.
  • Land use and development impact on the environment.
  • Water quality in the united states, focusing on natural resource governance.
  • Educational initiative's impact on public opinion and policy outcomes.
  • Social aspects of policy making and implementation on the environment.
  • Promoting sustainability from a global perspective.
  • Potential for justice initiatives in promoting equitable and effective management.
  • Rise of green economy its impact.
  • Environment policies and their potential for success.

Environmental Economics Research Topics

Environmental economics seeks to understand environmental issues from an economic perspective. Examining environmental studies topics can offer insights into ecological conservation and sustainability while connecting protection efforts with economic interests and helping inform policies. The following are creative topics about environmental science related to economics:

  • Economic impacts of regulating the environment.
  • Strategies for environmentally sustainable economic growth.
  • Consequences of non-compliance with environment-related regulations.
  • Environment conservation and protection using economic incentives.
  • Taxes and subsidies and their implications on the environment.
  • Economic implications of climate change legislation.
  • The private sector role in environment conservation and protection.
  • Green finance role in mitigating ecological issues.
  • Economics of pollution control and management.
  • Conservation and protection of the environment in the face of economic interests.

>> Learn more: Economics Research Topics

Environmental Biology Research Topics

Environmental biology is a field of science that focuses on understanding the interactions between living organisms and their environment. It covers environmental biology topics such as biodiversity, conservation, pollution, management, health, and sustainability. The following are environment research paper topics related to biology:

  • Biodiversity conservation in managing the environment.
  • Role of biotechnology in reducing air pollution.
  • Environment degradation and its consequences on wildlife.
  • Role of microorganisms in maintaining soil fertility.
  • Ecological consequences of over-exploitation of natural resources.
  • Habitat fragmentation and its role in species conservation.
  • Education's role in environment conservation.
  • Environment degradation and its effects on food security.
  • Invasive species and their impacts on ecosystem.

Keep in mind that we have a whole blog on biological topics if you need more ideas in this field.

Environmental Chemistry Research Topics

Environmental chemistry research is a complex interdisciplinary field aiming to understand the behavior of a chemical process within an environment. It involves researching the impact of pollutants in the air, soil, water, and other ecological media. Possible research topics about the environment related to this field include:

  • Effect of agricultural chemicals on water systems.
  • Air pollution control strategies and their effectiveness.
  • Climate change impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
  • Sources and implications of persistent organic pollutants.
  • Air quality monitoring for urban areas.
  • Water quality monitoring in coastal areas.
  • Characterization and fate of toxic compounds in soil and groundwater.
  • Impact of hazardous chemical waste on the environment.
  • Monitoring and remediation of contaminated sites.
  • The roles of environmental chemistry in climate change research.

Need more ideas? There is one more blog with  chemistry research topics  on our platform.

Environmental Health Science Research Topics

Environmental health is a diverse field focusing on the natural environment as well as its effects on human health. It is an interdisciplinary field that offers environment topics for research, such as environmental epidemiology, toxicology, and ecology, in addition to risk assessment. Provided below is a list of topics for an environmental science project that is suitable for your research paper:

  • Air pollution effects on human health.
  • Climate change effects on health.
  • Water pollution and public health.
  • Noise pollution effects on well-being.
  • Mental health effects of environment-related toxins.
  • Human health effects of natural disasters.
  • Urbanization's effect on human health.
  • Sustainable development and public health.
  • Role of social media in promoting environmental health and awareness.
  • Biodiversity preservation and its impact on human health.

Other Ideas & Topics About Environment for Research Papers

Ecological crisis is a key issue that has continuously affected planet earth. People are becoming more aware of environmental problems as well as their impact on health, well-being, and quality of life. As such, ecological fields for research are becoming ever more critical. This section will explore interesting environmental topics related to current ecological issues, controversial, interesting topics, easy research questions for projects, as well as unique research areas which students might study. These environmental issue project ideas below will help you develop interesting fields for research papers.

Current Issues in Environmental Science

Current ecological issues are a hot topic that has become increasingly important. They provide outstanding environmental issues to write about due to their impact on the environment and human health. The following are environmental issue topics for paper writing that are currently in discussion:

  • Global warming and how to prevent its impact.
  • Sustainable energy and its role in protecting the environment.
  • Water conservation practices.
  • Renewable energy role in global ecological protection.
  • Carbon footprint and climate change.
  • Ozone layer depletion and its effects on human health.
  • Plastic pollution and its impact.
  • Land degradation and soil erosion.
  • Energy industry activities effects on ecological health.
  • Air pollution and its impact on human health.
  • Deforestation and its consequences.
  • Effect of agricultural practices on ecological health.
  • Overuse and exploitation of natural resources.
  • Industrial waste impact on health.
  • Green technology role in ecological protection.

Controversial Environmental Topics for Research Paper

Environmental controversies constitute a significant challenge facing society today. From climate change to air and water pollution, the effects of human activity on our natural environment are increasingly becoming a focus of public debate and research. Research papers on environmental controversial topics can help inform the public as well as policymakers about the potential impacts of human activities on the environment. The following are examples of environmental controversy topics for research paper:

  • Climate change: is human activity a primary cause of global warming.
  • Deforestation: are current logging practices sustainable in the long term.
  • Air pollution: what are the health impacts of air pollution.
  • Water pollution: how is water pollution impacting biodiversity and ecosystems.
  • Geothermal energy: what potential impacts does geothermal energy extraction have on the environment.
  • Renewable energy: are wind and solar energy carbon-neutral.
  • Arctic drilling: is drilling for oil in the arctic ocean a viable option given current climate conditions.
  • Nuclear power: what health risks are associated with nuclear power plants.
  • Biodiversity loss: what steps can you take to protect biodiversity from human activities.
  • Endangered species: how protecting endangered species can impact conservation efforts and how they live.
  • GMO foods: are genetically modified organisms safe for human consumption? how does GMO food affect humans.
  • Pesticides: how does pesticide use affect our health and the environment.
  • Ocean acidification: how is ocean acidification impacting marine ecosystems.
  • Waste management: what are the most effective ways to manage waste and reduce pollution.
  • Resource exploitation: how does the exploitation of natural resources impact local communities.

Interesting Environmental Research Topics

In the context of environmental subjects, research topics explore the effects of human activities on the environment as well as the potential solutions to the identified problems. In addition to providing insight into ecological protection and conservation, research areas in this category cover social issues related to environmentalism and ecological justice. Below are interesting environmental science topics to consider when looking for a research topic in the future:

  • Effects of environment-related toxins on human health.
  • Climate change effects on coastal habitats.
  • Agricultural activities impacts on the environment.
  • Groundwater contamination and its effects on water quality.
  • Pollution from factories and its impact on the environment.
  • Waste management strategies and their impacts.
  • Consequences of water contamination on local wildlife.
  • Impacts of mining.
  • Deforestation effects on ecosystems and species diversity.
  • Industrial fishing practices effects.
  • Sustainable forestry practices and their impact on ecosystems.
  • Nuclear energy production and its consequences.
  • Reducing emissions from vehicles and their effects on air quality.
  • Landfills implications on the environment.
  • Implications of plastic pollution.

Easy Environmental Research Questions for Projects

When it comes to environmental science topics for project work, there are plenty of easy options. Research projects in this category can explore ecological issues as well as their consequences or potential solutions to these problems. The following is a list of the top fifteen most accessible environment project topics for your research project.

  • Air pollution levels impact on urban areas.
  • Agricultural practices effects on the environment.
  • Developing strategies for sustainable development.
  • Causes of water contamination.
  • Factors contributing to global warming.
  • Natural disasters effects on the environment.
  • Land use changes effects on the environment.
  • Energy consumption impacts on the environment.
  • Climate change effects on the environment.
  • Industrialization and its consequences.
  • Impact of plastic pollution.
  • Health risks associated with air pollution.
  • Deforestation impacts on the environment.
  • Soil erosion and its effects on the environment.
  • Causes and consequences of species extinction.

Unique Environmental Research Topics for Students

As environmental issues become increasingly complex, research fields for students become more varied. Unique environmental research topics for college students can range from local ecological concerns to global ones. The following are fifteen unique environmental science research topics for high school students and college students:

  • Climate change impact on water quality.
  • Acid rain and its effects.
  • Urbanization's effect on biodiversity.
  • Effects of offshore drilling.
  • Ocean acidification and its impact.
  • Impact of privatization on natural resources.
  • Effectiveness of renewable energy sources.
  • Relationship between energy consumption and the environment.
  • Potential impacts regarding genetic engineering on biodiversity.
  • Toxic waste disposal and its impacts.
  • Environment-related policies impact on water quality.
  • Deforestation and its effects on soil quality.
  • Causes and consequences of ozone layer depletion.
  • Relationship between pollution and public health issues.

Final Thoughts on Environmental Topics for Research Papers

This article has provided 235 environmental science research topics for research papers as well as project work that high school and college students can use. Topics range from local issues, such as assessing air pollution levels in an urban area, to global concerns, like examining the ecological effects of plastic pollution. Whether its health risks are associated with air pollution in an environment or the impacts of industrialization, research can help shape your understanding of how to protect as well as preserve our planet. It is up to the students to identify good environmental research topics that are interesting and relevant to them and to delve deeper to understand the earth better.

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HIS 100 - Perspectives in History

Climate change and environmental issues.

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While climate change and environmental issues have become increasingly controversial issues in the past thirty years, it has been a threat for much longer. If this is an area of interest to you, please select one of the three historical events on the menu to the left for your course work to begin exploring their environmental impact. Below you can learn more about each topic first by clicking on the title. 

Great London Smog This link opens in a new window

Creation of Earth Day This link opens in a new window

Chernobyl This link opens in a new window

Each of these topics listed above are linked to a Research Starter, which is a  tertiary source . Tertiary sources are great to get background information on a topic, but these are not meant to be cited in your assignment. Once you click on the topic of your choice from the menu, you will find a number of primary and secondary sources to use in your assignment. Read through each source to learn more about your chosen historical event. 

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Environmental Issues Research Paper

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This sample environmental issues research paper features: 6700 words (approx. 22 pages), an outline, and a bibliography with 39 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

Introduction

Cultural beliefs and the environment, social construction and the environment, social construction and social movements, political economy and the environment, environmental issues: method and application, risk perception and environmental health, mobilization around toxic waste sites: love canal.

  • Bibliography

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Environmental issues can be discussed within a number of different contexts. For anthropology and sociology, culture and society become important factors in understanding environmental issues. By incorporating a perspective that includes environmental history, aspects of environmental change, dialogue and culture, and future concerns, a more complete understanding of the relationship between sociocultural actions and the natural environment can be developed. In an effort to understand the nature of environmental problems, one must develop an understanding of the cultural paradigms that guide human behavior and interaction with the natural environment. Many perspectives seek to explain this relationship. Social scientists look toward dialogue and cultural perspectives to trace the history of environmental concern.

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Historically, humans have understood their role to be one of dominion over nature. This is explained in numerous classic works and referenced in many religious and spiritual texts as well (Bell, 2008; Dunlap & Mertig, 1992). Cultural paradigms exist that serve to guide our interactions with the environment. Most stem from the anthropocentric belief that the world is centered around people and that human society has the right to maintain dominion over nature. Structural beliefs provide the foundation of these understandings.

The belief that a free market system provides the greatest good for the greatest number of people leads us to place economic decision-making processes in private hands. Frequently, private decisions have public consequences, but these public consequences are not accounted for in production costs or covered by market costs. Instead, the costs are passed on to consumers in the form of taxes and higher base prices for goods and services. Esteemed environmentalists Al Gore Jr. and Robert Kennedy Jr. have argued that if the external costs of production were assumed by manufacturers, then the ultimate benefit would be a system that accounted for waste created in the production process. This is evident in their research on global warming. Coal-fired power plants are promoted as one of the cheapest forms of creating energy. This is misleading, because the health effects of pollution caused by coal are not included in the costs of production. Others argue that those costs would have to be passed on to the consumer. However, they are passed on now in the way of pollution and medical expenses for illnesses associated with environmental contaminants. Coal is one of the biggest contributors to greenhouse gases, thus leading to the overall societal costs of global warming.

Another cultural belief is that the natural world is inexhaustible. Extraction of natural resources happens at an incredible rate without a consideration to limits. Society’s constant dependence on nonrenewable energy forces mining and the refining of coal and oil to keep up with these demands. Consumer goods are deliberately planned to become obsolete within a relatively short time, and consumers are pressured to buy replacements. This process has been conceptualized in research focused on the treadmill of production. Production and utility processes, using natural resources, dominate the modes of production. The reliance on the treadmill model provides perpetual extraction and production, increasing the fragility of the natural environment.

Another cultural value resides in a lasting faith in technology. Culturally, we believe that technology can meet any challenge. Humans are seen as ingenious creatures able to devise solutions for any problem. However, technology itself is not sufficiently controlled and can create more problems that contribute to environmental degradation. This can lead to a situation known as culture lag, used here to describe a situation in which technology has outpaced the cultural ability to respond to the consequences of using a given technology.

The philosophy of the growth ethic argues that growth equals progress. Successful cultures are often defined by their levels of progress. Urban sprawl exemplifies the connection between progress and environmental destruction. Urban ecologists argue urban sprawl follows the concentric circle urban planning mode of the early 20th century. Residents were encouraged to develop space for residential purposes further away from city centers. This was culturally promoted as prime real estate, and individuals continued to purchase land as a showing of class standing. Urban sprawl results in the loss of green and open space, increased use of natural resources, and more vehicle miles traveled as commuting distance continues to increase.

Materialism is a cultural value that also contributes to how environmental problems emerge. Americans tend to measure success in terms of the consumption of material things. Globally, the most valued nation is one that can command and use the largest fraction of the world’s resources. Currently, the United States supports 5% of the world’s population and uses 25% of the world’s natural resources. This is evidence that the cultural emphasis on the consumption of material goods is in direct correlation with natural resource use.

Two final cultural values that impact environmental practices are individualism and an anthropocentric worldview. Cultures that emphasize individual rights and personal achievements tend to have a greater environmental impact. We place benefits to the self over what is best for the collective. Subsequently, the anthropocentric worldview is centered around human beings, thus inferring that human begins are superior to other beings and have natural rights to use the environment to ensure the progress of human beings as a species.

Subsequently, these cultural beliefs form the principles that overwhelmingly guide cultural interactions with nature. Theoretically, they serve as paradigms that explain the emergence of environmental issues. The following section provides specific theoretical underpinnings of environmental issues.

Theory and the Environment

Theory addressing environmental issues has been situated in the social constructionist and political economy approaches. Within these approaches, attention has been paid to developments of subfields in social science research, such as social movements and the environment, environmental health, and environmental justice.

Social constructionists focus on the construction of social problems and how this allows individuals to assign meaning and give importance to the social world. Sarbin and Kitsuse argued that “things are not given in the world, but constructed and negotiated by humans to make sense of the world” (1994, p. 3). When interests are at stake, claims are made around an activity in order to define the interests as problems. The process of claims making is more important than the task of assessing whether the claims are true (Hannigan, 1995).

Hannigan provides a three-step process for the construction of environmental problems: assembling, presenting, and contesting. He argues that each step develops the claimsmaking activities of environmental activists and antagonists. Environmental problems are different from other social problems, because claims are often based on physical, chemical, or biological scientific evidence (Hannigan, 1995). In nearly all cases of environmental problems, even though such problems are based on scientific evidence, the burden of proof falls on the claims-makers, the environmental actors.

When a claim about an environmental problem is presented, state and corporate actors emerge most often to challenge the validity of these problems. Although these actors are willing to construct the issue as a “problem,” support to alleviate the problem is often lacking. If it supports the alleviation of the problem, most probably through funding remedial efforts or research, the state or corporation is seen as taking responsibility for the problem. If the state is seen as responsible, its perceived legitimacy decreases, which may lead to decreased trust. On the other hand, if a problem is not acknowledged, then trust in government may also decrease, because the perception arises that the interests of the state are not the best for the people.

The power of individuals in roles and positions to define these claims is ultimately what allows problems to be defined as problems. Claims may be made by others not in a position of power, but they are often not seen as valid because of the lack of power associated with the role. Different claims of environmental problems then lead to different definitions of the problems.

Definitions of problems are framed to illustrate specific viewpoints of what the problem is. Goffman used the term frame in order to explain interpretations of occurrences. Frames can serve as explanations or guideposts to individual or collective action (Snow & Benford, 1988). Snow and Benford describe framing as an activity performed by social movements to express their viewpoints and “to assign meaning to and interpret relevant events and conditions in ways that are intended to mobilize potential adherents and constituents—to garner bystander support and demobilize antagonists” (p. 198).

By framing events in certain ways that assign meaning to them, actors can attempt to mobilize support and delegitimize opposing viewpoints. Because different frames may emerge surrounding the same problem, individuals may choose to adopt one or the other on the basis of the reliability of the frames. One factor in determining reliability is trust in the actors who present the frame. Constituents may mobilize around one frame because trust in that explanation and the organization that presents it is high (Robinson, 2009). This impacts how individuals interpret the seriousness of environmental problems and subsequently whether issues will be acted on and in what manner.

The framing process can serve to mobilize constituents for or against a particular cause. Mobilization against frames that are presented by actors emerges when the audience of the frame has low trust in the source of the frame. Social movement literature has acknowledged the emergence of mobilization over environmental issues where lack of trust is present. Examples include institutional recreancy, lack of trust in government agencies and officials, and the combination of the two (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Cable & Cable, 1997; Freudenburg, 1993; Gaventa, 1980; Gibbs, 1982).

Charles Tilly provides a model for mobilization that bridges some of the ideological views of frame analysis with collective action and resource mobilization theory. Tilly’s (1978) definition of mobilization is “a process by which a group goes from a passive collection of individuals to an active participant in public life” (p. 69). A further extreme of this model is resource mobilization theory, which gives even less importance to ideological factors and, instead, emphasizes the need for available resources. The combination of ideologies, resources, and the power of frame presentation contribute to mobilization. Using this analytical framework, the emergence of environmental problems and mobilization around these problems can be better understood.

Environmental problems in communities provide a setting to further explore this connection. Community organizing around local problems has a long history in the United States. Many forms of community organizing exist. These have included writing and literacy circle newsletters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Saul Alinsky’s model of radical politics to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people (1971), and neighborhood block clubs. The goals to spread awareness, ensure social justice, and understand that city hall can be fought vary in scope and magnitude but have often proved to be effective models for organizing.

Citizen action in response to toxic waste at Love Canal has emerged as the premier example of community organizing over environmental issues. The story of neighborhood organizing and the quest for a clean, healthy environment is acknowledged in most major studies on environmental issues. The specifics of this case follow in a later section where the application of environmental issues is discussed.

Theories of political economy of environmental issues focus on the development of political and economic practices and policies that contribute to environmental problems. Primarily, the focus has been on the creation of the capitalist mode of production that leads to overwhelming environmental destruction. Furthermore, the development of capitalism promotes a political environment that is friendly to more profitable, but less environmentally friendly, practices.

In addition to physical environmental realities that production processes cause, issues of health and economic injustice exist. Bryant and Mohai (1992) asked whether a safe environment is a civil right. They argue that people of color see environmental degradation interrelated with economic and political justice. This is the fundamental idea behind environmental justice in both action and theory. Another issue in environmental justice arises because people of color and lower income are less likely to have access to health insurance; thus, they become more ill if exposed to environmental hazards without means of treatment. Therefore, these populations share more of the negative environmental burden and have fewer resources to resolve the given problems.

The connection between health and economic justice is not a new relationship. Since World War II, there has been an increase in the development of the petrochemical industry. Coinciding with an increased demand for synthetic chemicals was an increased demand for disposal sites for waste byproducts of these chemicals. Many disposal sites were created in vacant plots of land, without the regulated disposal standards in place today. Expensive land used for the disposal sites of the 1940s and 1950s became the residential suburban developments of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. With the post–World War II increase in population, many families were moving into suburban neighborhoods. Families felt safe from the problems of the cities, but they were not aware that many residential properties were built near the abandoned chemical waste sites of prior decades.

The problems of environmental contamination were first addressed publicly in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). Her warning of chemical contaminants silencing biological life was not heeded at the time her book was published. These issues were not addressed until the 1970s with the first Earth Day in 1970, followed by the passing of numerous pieces of environmental protection legislation and the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Through this period of uncertainty, unclear scientific findings overwhelmed policymakers and the public, leading to confusion about how to develop environmental policies and actions.

Environmental problems have manifested most directly in the form of pollution. Evidence of environmental destruction is seen in the form of air, water, and land pollution that has a direct impact on the health of the human population. One of the most direct links between pollution and negative health effects has been identified since the creation of the petrochemical industry in the 1940s. Since this time, we have seen more cases of cancer and respiratory illness in the human population. The rate remains high even when controlling for mitigating factors, such as the effects of advanced medical technology in treating these illnesses, and lifestyle factors, such as diet and smoking. This case was made with the infamous discovery of toxic waste at Love Canal, New York, in 1978.

Literature in this area addresses the possible effects of exposure to toxins on one’s health. However, few studies have provided irrefutable evidence supporting the research hypothesis (association exists) or the null hypothesis (no association exists). Scientists know that chemicals can have adverse effects on the human condition when ingested, but they argue that some indirect exposures through air, soil, water, or residential habitation in proximity to such toxins have not provided similar consequences. The basic disagreement emerges in how one views risk, either through the precautionary principle or through risk assessment and evaluation. Proponents of the precautionary principle argue that if the chance of danger is present, then precaution should be used to avoid exposure. Risk assessment would argue the opposite—that the risk must be known before action is taken to avoid exposure. The difficulty is that science has not provided irrefutable evidence on the dangers of many chemical substances; therefore action for their removal from products and the environment has been slow. Recently, Devra Davis took on this phenomenon in The Secret History of the War on Cancer (2008). She outlined the lack of scientific responsibility in reporting findings connecting cancer and chemical exposure.

Most reports have not described exposures accurately, or they have failed to completely identify a causal factor (National Research Council, 1991). The Committee on Environmental Epidemiology was formed to assess the progress on hazardous waste assessment since the creation of Superfund and the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. The committee concluded that no conclusive reports could be used to base policy on, because there are no measures in place to accurately depict exposure assessments. Their conclusions continue: There exists no comprehensive inventory of waste sites, no site discovery program, no minimum data set on human exposures, and no policy for immediate action if exposure exists (National Research Council, 1991). The report indicates that “the nation is not adequately identifying, assessing, or ranking hazardous-waste site exposures and their potential effects on human health” (p. 21).

Environmental toxins have long been thought to be causally related to the incidence of disease. Air pollution, specifically with carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, has been studied in association with asthma and pulmonary disorders (Carnow, Lepper, Shekelle, & Stamler, 1969). Water pollution, particularly with trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, sparked a concern about childhood and adult leukemia in Woburn, Massachusetts (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990). Similarly, numerous studies have been conducted that investigate the exposure-ailment connection (Landrigan, 1990; Neutra, Lipscomb, Satin, & Shusterman, 1991; Paigen, Goldman, Mougnant, Highland, & Steegman, 1987). These studies use descriptive and case-control methods and field investigations consisting of surveys and physical examinations, resulting in quantitative analyses in order to test hypotheses.

Descriptive studies portray disease patterns in populations according to person, place, and time, and they include time-series analyses (National Research Council, 1991). For example, a study performed by the National Cancer Institute used maps of cancer incidences and toxic waste sites, concluding that the high incidence of bladder cancer in northwestern Illinois counties was significant and leading to the implementation of an incidence study using survey methods (National Research Council, 1991).

A cohort study was employed with North Carolina residents who consumed raw polluted river water contaminated by an industrial site from 1947 to 1976. Residents’ rates of all forms of cancer were more than twice those expected in the general population (National Research Council, 1991). Once exposure ceased, rates returned to the expected level, adjusting for latency.

The epidemiologic case-control study carried out in Woburn, Massachusetts, yielded an association between leukemia and drinking from contaminated wells. The EPA could not pinpoint the source of contamination; therefore, it could not infer conclusively that the cases of leukemia were due to the proximity of a hazardous waste site (Lagakos, Wessen, & Lelen, 1986).

Griffith, Duncan, Riggan, and Pellom (1989) analyzed EPA and cancer mortality data from 13 U.S. sites where there were major incidences of cancer between 1970 and 1979. They found evidence that contaminated ground water was used for human consumption at 593 waste sites in 339 U.S. counties in 49 states. Significant associations were found between several cancers and exposure to contaminated water in white males; these included cancers of the lung, bladder, esophagus, stomach, large intestine, and rectum (Griffith et al., 1989). Higher incidences of cancers of the lung, bladder, breast, stomach, large intestine, and rectum were found in white females in these counties (Griffith et al., 1989), when compared with females in counties that did not have hazardous waste sites. However, this study has been criticized based on its use of populationbased incidences of cancer rather than individual-level estimates. Researchers inferred that proximity to hazardous waste sites caused cancer.

Wong, Morgan, Whorton, Gordon, and Kheifets (1989) performed an ecologic and case-control analysis to evaluate whether there was an association between groundwater contamination with dibromochloropropane (DBCP) and mortality from gastric cancer and leukemia. The only positive association that was found was in farm workers. No relationship was found for gastric cancer or leukemia with DBCP contamination of drinking water.

Neutra et al. (1991) found that individuals living near toxic waste sites had one or more bothersome symptoms that those living in control areas did not have. However, rates of cancer and birth defects were not found to be statistically significantly different for these individuals than for those in the control neighborhoods. Symptoms such as worrying, depression, and nervousness were more likely to be the result of knowledge of the site and its contaminants than the result of chemical exposure. Although some practitioners argue that residents near these sites do show higher incidences of asthma and psychological disturbances than individuals in control groups, the findings remain highly controversial (Neutra et al., 1991).

For the most part, these studies consist of survey and field investigation methodologies, relying on self-report methods. One problem with explaining associations that rely on self-report methods is that if residents want to be relocated or have other agendas, then the degree to which symptoms are reported may increase. Many residents felt that this was what some homeowners were hoping for at Love Canal. This remains one of the most critical problems with state and federal agency studies that seek to provide evidence of community risk.

With the increase in studies in this area, the public has been partially reassured by having the knowledge that at least concerns are being recognized. Specifically, cancer rates are still high, but the fear of human-made chemicals has largely been dispelled. Most recently, the organic food movement has been gaining legitimacy. Yet, many still doubt the health benefits behind this movement. Studies concerning environmental racism have been more prevalent, focusing on the incidence of lower-income, nonwhite families living near toxic waste sites. This focus has taken attention away from specific health problems. Instead, the focus has been on issues of political economy and equity. This is not a criticism of environmental justice but rather a call for the convergence of natural science and sociology in order to address both issues. Other variables to be considered in these studies may include racial composition of counties, social class of counties, concentration of low-income occupations in counties, new housing starts in counties, and the percentage of welfare recipients per county.

The uncertainty of science had created cross-discipline dialogue. Social scientists have addressed environmental issues in studies of risk assessment, disaster relief (both natural and technological), toxic exposure, and other datadriven areas. Because of the risk of chemical exposure due to toxic waste, landfills emerged as one of the most imminent public health threats with the discovery of Love Canal. However, even in cases where studies to show an association between illness and exposure to toxic chemicals have been inconclusive, the message has been that these chemicals cause cancer and needed to be eradicated.

An important role of science is to inform the public of findings, usually through the media. Epidemiologic studies deal with human populations and are often questioned based on the legitimacy of the data and the willingness of the agency or corporation funding the research to share findings with the public. These studies are also usually based on relatively small populations and a small number of events; this results in a lack of significant findings, because sample sizes are too small to generate statistically reliable conclusions. Researchers are asked to report conclusions to various interest groups that may have a stake in the research problem. The pressure of the public arena and media, with emerging concerns and consequences for public health and the environment, has led to a decrease in the willingness to share data and be criticized if the data do not fit the public agenda. Politics and public perception surpass what science is able to provide. Science’s inability to prove negatives has led to public policy that tries to control what cannot be established. This uncertainty shapes policy to err on the side of protection; yet in many communities the risks are endured regardless.

Findings often snowball into hard line conclusions and the perception of a problem when one may not exist, or vice versa. Risk perception and the realization of risks are two different things. Risk perception may encompass what one believes might occur or an understanding based on secondary information. Risk realization occurs when one is physically affected by the agent or situation and a decision to act is based on that encounter. The problem arises in this discrepancy. Perception is what people perceive to be happening. With different information from different scientific experts, the public is left to decide on their own who or what is right, based on the health and well-being of themselves and their families.

Freudenburg (1993) discussed the concept of risk and recreancy in public decision making. He argues that an increase in institutional responsibility for risk management has created a system where responsibilities are often overlooked. This concept proposes increased frequency in institutional decision making in risk analysis. Freudenburg (1993) coined the term recreancy to identify the institutional failure to follow through on a duty or responsibility or broadly expected obligations to the collective. Questions are now raised by individuals deciphering scientific studies for themselves, but they now question the role of institutional actors. Without correlational data from an alternative institutional source that they trust, citizens do not know where to turn for clear answers about data regarding environmental toxins.

Community-based studies by community organizers have emerged in an attempt to address the failure of institutions to provide real, understandable answers regarding human health and exposure rates. Specifically, recent literature calls for more involvement of the scientific community in the decision-making process. A resurgence of popular epidemiology, since Lois Gibbs’s attempt in 1978– 1979, has found individuals using lay methods to determine association. Even if they don’t result in strong, scientific evidence, community-based studies at least provide the groundwork and show a need for more in-depth studies. Brown and Mikkelsen’s 1990 study is a strong example of this method. The question of whether there was a connection between childhood leukemia and known contaminated well water divided the community, but it forced epidemiologic studies.

Coinciding with these revelations, other studies were being conducted that attempted to link other contaminated sites with adverse health effects. As Gots (1993) stated, most were laboratory studies in simulated environments. Examples of human studies existed only in the sociological and epidemiological literature (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Gibbs, 1982; Landrigan, 1990; Neutra et al., 1991). Incidences of chemical scares were also prevalent. Headlines concerning the dioxin scare at Times Beach, Missouri; contamination of apple crops with the synthetic growth regulator Alar; and use of Agent Orange created the fear that human-made chemicals cause disease. Evidence existed that these specific chemicals may cause health problems in humans, but data on the incidence of illness relative to exposure and on synergistic effects of these chemicals were missing. Furthermore, there was even less information available about other potential threats to health, such as airborne and waterborne contaminants, environmental sensitivity disorders, and living in proximity to hazardous waste sites. To establish a causal relationship between exposure and chemicals, obtaining valid measures and estimates for exposure is essential.

Environmental Movements

Contaminated Communities; The Challenge of Social Control; Environmental Problems as Conflicts of Interests; Disasters, Collective Behavior, and Social Organization; Love Canal: Science, Politics, People, and Power; and Powerlessness are just a few of the book titles that describe the scope and emergence of the mobilization surrounding environmental problems. Since the publication of Silent Spring, the struggle to define, understand, and resolve environmental problems has inundated environmental literature as well as the agendas of environmental organizations at both the national and local levels.

The environmental movement in the United States can be traced back to the early conservationists at the turn of the 20th century, whose focus was on control of natural resources for technological and societal use. Accompanying this was a movement toward the preservation of the natural environment simply for nature’s sake and separate from any use and/or value that human society had placed upon it.

The contemporary environmental movement embraced both of these traditions while focusing on building a political alliance to ensure the passage of legislation that would protect both nature and human health. As evidenced by the multitude of legislative victories the environmental movement claimed during the 1970s, the environmental movement was gaining prominence as one of the most successful efforts of social movement organizers.

Politically, momentum began to shift back toward the wise-use movement throughout the 1980s. Environmental problems were framed in opposition to capitalist goals. Politicians took an either/or stance: jobs or the environment. With one’s economic livelihood seemingly at stake, it is no wonder that concern for the environment was diminished in the public agenda. The environmental health movement is arguably one area that continued to keep environmental issues in the public’s consciousness. One of the classic and influential cases in environmental organizing, Love Canal, illustrates the interconnectedness of politics, science, and the environment.

To understand the factors contributing to the emergence, awareness, and mobilization around environmental problems, the scope and focus of the problem must be considered. This analysis focuses on the emergence of and mobilization around toxic waste sites found in residential communities. Literature addressing toxic waste sites in communities place Love Canal, New York, as the first community to encounter such a problem that received national media attention. Although community protests were occurring around the toxics issue as early as 1970, no other site received the same degree of national media attention (Szasz, 1994).

In 1978, Love Canal was declared a federal disaster area, but the final homeowner evacuation was voluntary, not mandatory, even though the state had said a health emergency may exist. Given the possibility of ill-health effects, residents were given the choice about whether to stay or move. Because of the lack of strong correlational evidence, public health officials were not able to substantiate a link between exposure to chemicals and disease (Robinson, 2002).

The questionable contaminated area was evacuated and became known as the Emergency Declaration Area (EDA). It was divided into seven sampling areas. Two studies were performed to assess the habitability and safety of the area. The first study was completed in 1982 by the New York State Department of Health (DOH), the EPA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Problems arose about the study’s conclusion, which was that the EDA was as habitable as comparable control areas. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment found that the study lacked information to determine whether unsafe levels of contamination existed and that it did not make clear what next steps should be taken. Thereafter, DOH and EPA conducted a second study on habitability; it was released in 1988. Habitability and safety have been studied in regard to numerous hazardous waste sites, but actual rates of illness have not been linked to exposure to toxic substances from nearby chemical waste sites.

The Superfund Act, passed in 1980, was written specifically in response to the known hazardous waste site at Love Canal. Policymakers recognized that industry used land-based disposal methods, that industrial sites were contaminated, and that an increase in clean air and water standards led to a decrease in land-based regulated disposal (Barnett, 1994). The problem was that there was neither an informed way of counting or tracking these sites, nor evidence of an adverse ecosystem and human effects (Barnett, 1994).

Since Love Canal, no other neighborhood has received the same degree of attention, although many have encountered toxic waste contaminants in their communities (Brown & Mikkelsen, 1990; Bryant & Mohai, 1992; Cable, Walsh, & Warland, 1988). No conclusive, significant correlation between chemicals and cancer has been found at Love Canal or at the other identified exposure sites. Nor has any truly verifiable evidence been found that exposure to, and living near, any other toxic waste site causes disease, though disorders have been loosely associated with chemical exposure, such as asthma, respiratory disease, nerve damage, miscarriages, and cancer.

People living near these sites must often decide on how much they want to expose themselves to risk. Once the presence of a waste site is known, they must decide, without data to guide their decisions, whether to stay in their homes or leave. This has historically interfered with the availability and collection of valid data. When a study is conducted, residents request to be informed of the results and progress of the study. Because most epidemiological studies require longitudinal or cohort analysis in order to be reliable and valid, it is advantageous to have a stable, nonmobile population. This begs ethical questions, on behalf of the researchers, to disclose data relating to exposure before the study is completed. Researchers cannot both verify exposure findings and expect residents to remain so that they can carry out the remainder of the study. Thus, individuals, families, and communities are asked to base their decisions on claims that cannot be substantiated one way or the other.

Toxic waste sites continue to be discovered in communities. In many cases, the resulting community struggles are extended battles. The operative phrase in many cases is “once a site is discovered.” The chemicals in Love Canal were buried 30 years before it was known to the community that their houses, school, and playground were built on top of and surrounding a chemical site containing 22,000 tons of waste. This is not to say that the problem didn’t exist before its discovery by residents; it just wasn’t defined as a problem. From the time the chemicals were buried to the discovery of the site by residents 30 years later, residents noticed dogs with burned noses, children with skin rashes, and increased rates of miscarriages, leukemia, and nerve and respiratory disorders. But they were not aware that these rates were out of the ordinary. The effects of the problem did not change, but the way the problem was represented did. The shift was in an awareness of the existence of the problem.

In addition to the chemical disaster at Love Canal, other environmental issues have been the subject of various social movement activities, as well as political legislation. In each instance, public perception influences how and whether the problem is acted on by those with the power to make a difference.

Culturally and socially, environmental problems represent problems of social organization, communication, and socialization. Social scientists can look toward the phenomenon, visible in the reaction to environmental problems, to begin making sense of culture and society at large. Our understanding of environmental issues as primarily social constructions offers insight into how these issues are created, maintained, and resolved.

For example, in many cases where chemical contamination is the focal issue of community groups, the level of risk is perceived by affected individuals rather than established by science. It is the social processes in a community that lead to risk determination, not the natural science interpretations of an issue. Individuals have been socialized to trust science for valid information. When the determination of risk is uncertain, individuals are left to determine the level of risk for themselves by other means. In most cases, this determination is made through contact with state or federal government officials, through collaboration with other community members, or through other sources of information, such as the media. This framework helps to explain disagreements over the seriousness of most environmental issues, from global climate change to mountain-top coal removal.

The subjective reality of environmental problems becomes visible in terms of how the issue is circulated in cultural discourse. Each stakeholder constructs different means of projecting information for public consumption. When presented in the media, the perception is that information is true and accurate. Most often the determination of risk takes place in the form of a public meeting. In this situation, public officials are in control of the meeting, drawing on public anticipation surrounding the specific issue and information to be released. At Love Canal, for example, officials kept the information to be discussed at the meeting private until the meeting in order to build anticipation and increase their power over the dissemination of information.

At both the cultural and social level, power is maintained through these exercises. Often, the state controls the dissemination of information that individuals perceive to be true and accurate. However, different modes of collaboration among community members can create a different means of risk determination. The sharing of common experiences among community residents can lead to a broader sense of mobilization. Once commonalties are recognized, residents begin to determine their own level of risk. Risk perception is based on the potential danger of a problem. The sources that individuals base their information and understanding on are numerous. Each source has developed a frame of events and information on which they base their version of reality. Whether from the media, science, the state, or local knowledge, such frames serve as a means to display a problem in terms of a specific group. Social movement development, in relation to the environment, offers a powerful tool for individuals looking to construct the frame of a given environmental reality.

The ways in which environmental realities have been constructed influences how they will be acted on socially, culturally, and politically. Cultural discourse then circulates in the public sphere and becomes normative. Environmental issues become part of the public dialogue. This dialogue serves to help develop an understanding about the factors that coalesce to create, maintain, and resolve social processes that influence environmental problems.

Community-level interaction is an interesting social space from which to witness environmental understanding. Community-based, environmental problems affect individuals in many ways. Some communities mobilize and form environmental organizations to address a specific problem. Others, with existing community organizations, add environmental problems to their agenda. Environmental problems can vary in scope, size, and duration.

Mobilization in these communities may occur due to individuals’ fear that nothing is being done to ensure the safety of their children and families. It may also occur on the basis of frustration and an inability to understand what and why this is happening in their community. In addition, community groups often mobilize as a result of a lack of trust in government. The mobilization of individuals to resist the state’s discourse challenges the power of the state. The level of trust in government is a key factor in determining the level of power the state can maintain during the presentation of its frame. For example, if trust in government is low, then a stronger frame needs to be developed to legitimize the government’s position. Government often emerges as the key stakeholder, as the actor that will have the power to create change.

Previous research addresses the state’s desire to maintain legitimacy at the same time that community groups seek to resist state discourse. Admitting that there is a problem shows that the state is capable of mistakes, and thus, the state’s legitimacy can be questioned and it is vulnerable. The goal in the rhetoric of the state is not to raise questions, thereby maintaining legitimacy.

Most environmental problems are categorized by place: global, local, or national. These categories are not mutually exclusive. For example, ozone depletion is a global problem because of the total atmospheric effects the ozone layer has on the biosphere from ultraviolet rays. Yet the problem can be seen as being local in an area where heavy smog is causing ozone depletion and high surface area ozone levels, such as in a highly urban area like Los Angeles.

Similarly, the discovery of toxic waste sites across the United States can be seen as a national problem. But in the specific communities where these sites are discovered, it is a local problem affecting individuals directly. The problem is no longer seen as away from them; it is now part of their community. This developing framework of environmental issues has helped individuals become aware of the multitude of impacts that these problems have. Social scientists have been able to develop an understanding of the environment that moves away from the depiction of the earth as something separate from human society, but, instead, the earth is a system with interrelated consequences and realities. One of the most vivid paradigm shifts has been the movement away from an anthropocentric worldview and toward an environmental worldview. This shift can be represented in the movement from the human environmental paradigm (HEP) to the new environmental paradigm (NEP).

Social scientists focus on this shift as a way to explain a cultural movement that has embraced a way of understanding the impact that society has on the environment. Arguably, once the NEP is part of the natural discourse of environmental issues, they become more easily recognized as problems that have risen from a system out of balance. This approach focuses on sustainable development and other modes of development that provide environmentally sensitive growth models. These efforts move toward a culture that is sensitive to a responsibility that ensures less devastating environmental impact in the future. As environmental sociologists and other environmental researchers seek answers for a sustainable society, we must consider the devastating impacts of our current modes of production. New modes of production that take into consideration innovative, green energy solutions will provide a stronger sustainable economy and environment for culture and society.

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The Top 10 Most Interesting Climate Change Research Topics

Finishing your environmental science degree may require you to write about climate change research topics. For example, students pursuing a career as environmental scientists may focus their research on environmental-climate sensitivity or those studying to become conservation scientists will focus on ways to improve the quality of natural resources.

Climate change research paper topics vary from anthropogenic climate to physical risks of abrupt climate change. Papers should focus on a specific climate change research question. Read on to learn more about examples of climate change research topics and questions.

Find your bootcamp match

What makes a strong climate change research topic.

A strong climate change research paper topic should be precise in order for others to understand your research. You must use research methods to find topics that discuss a concern about climate issues. Your broader topic should be of current importance and a well-defined discourse on climate change.

Tips for Choosing a Climate Change Research Topic

  • Research what environmental scientists say. Environmental scientists study ecological problems. Their studies include the threat of climate change on environmental issues. Studies completed by these professionals are a good starting point.
  • Use original research to review articles for sources. Starting with a general search is a good place to get ideas. However, as you begin to refine your search, use original research papers that have passed through the stage of peer review.
  • Discover the current climatic conditions of the research area. The issue of climate change affects each area differently. Gather information on the current climate and historical climate conditions to help bolster your research.
  • Consider current issues of climate change. You want your analyses on climate change to be current. Using historical data can help you delve deep into climate change effects. First, however, it needs to back up climate change risks.
  • Research the climate model evaluation options. There are different approaches to climate change evaluation. Choosing the right climate model evaluation system will help solidify your research.

What’s the Difference Between a Research Topic and a Research Question?

A research topic is a broad area of study that can encompass several different issues. An example might be the key role of climate change in the United States. While this topic might make for a good paper, it is too broad and must be narrowed to be written effectively.

A research question narrows the topic down to one or two points. The question provides a framework from which to start building your paper. The answers to your research question create the substance of your paper as you report the findings.

How to Create Strong Climate Change Research Questions

To create a strong climate change research question, start settling on the broader topic. Once you decide on a topic, use your research skills and make notes about issues or debates that may make an interesting paper. Then, narrow your ideas down into a niche that you can address with theoretical or practical research.

Top 10 Climate Change Research Paper Topics

1. climate changes effect on agriculture.

Climate change’s effect on agriculture is a topic that has been studied for years. The concern is the major role of climate as it affects the growth of crops, such as the grains that the United States cultivates and trades on the world market. According to the scientific journal Nature , one primary concern is how the high levels of carbon dioxide can affect overall crops .

2. Economic Impact of Climate Change

Climate can have a negative effect on both local and global economies. While the costs may vary greatly, even a slight change could cost the United States a loss in the Global Domestic Product (GDP). For example, rising sea levels may damage the fiber optic infrastructure the world relies on for trade and communication.

3. Solutions for Reducing the Effect of Future Climate Conditions

Solutions for reducing the effect of future climate conditions range from reducing the reliance on fossil fuels to reducing the number of children you have. Some of these solutions to climate change are radical ideas and may not be accepted by the general population.

4. Federal Government Climate Policy

The United States government’s climate policy is extensive. The climate policy is the federal government’s action for climate change and how it hopes to make an impact. It includes adopting the use of electric vehicles instead of gas-powered cars. It also includes the use of alternative energy systems such as wind energy.

5. Understanding of Climate Change

Understanding climate change is a broad climate change research topic. With this, you can introduce different research methods for tracking climate change and showing a focused effect on specific areas, such as the impact on water availability in certain geographic areas.

6. Carbon Emissions Impact of Climate Change

Carbon emissions are a major factor in climate change. Due to the greenhouse effect they cause, the world is seeing a higher number of devastating weather events. An increase in the number and intensity of tsunamis, hurricanes, and tornados are some of the results.

7. Evidence of Climate Change

There is ample evidence of climate change available, thanks to the scientific community. However, some of these implications of climate change are hotly contested by those with poor views about climate scientists. Proof of climate change includes satellite images, ice cores, and retreating glaciers.

8. Cause and Mitigation of Climate Change

The causes of climate change can be either human activities or natural causes. Greenhouse gas emissions are an example of how human activities can alter the world’s climate. However, natural causes such as volcanic and solar activity are also issues. Mitigation plans for these effects may include options for both causes.

9. Health Threats and Climate Change

Climate change can have an adverse effect on human health. The impacts on health from climate change can include extreme heat, air pollution, and increasing allergies. The CDC warns these changes can cause respiratory threats, cardiovascular issues, and heat-related illnesses.

10. Industrial Pollution and the Effects of Climate Change

Just as car emissions can have an adverse effect on the climate, so can industrial pollution. It is one of the leading factors in greenhouse gas effects on average temperature. While the US has played a key role in curtailing industrial pollution, other countries need to follow suit to mitigate the negative impacts it causes.

Other Examples of Climate Change Research Topics & Questions

Climate change research topics.

  • The challenge of climate change faced by the United States
  • Climate change communication and social movements
  • Global adaptation methods to climate change
  • How climate change affects migration
  • Capacity on climate change and the effect on biodiversity

Climate Change Research Questions

  • What are some mitigation and adaptation to climate change options for farmers?
  • How do alternative energy sources play a role in climate change?
  • Do federal policies on climate change help reduce carbon emissions?
  • What impacts of climate change affect the environment?
  • Do climate change and social movements mean the end of travel?

Choosing the Right Climate Change Research Topic

Choosing the correct climate change research paper topic takes continuous research and refining. Your topic starts as a general overview of an area of climate change. Then, after extensive research, you can narrow it down to a specific question.

You need to ensure that your research is timely, however. For example, you don’t want to address the effects of climate change on natural resources from 15 or 20 years ago. Instead, you want to focus on views about climate change from resources within the last five years.

Climate Change Research Topics FAQ

A climate change research paper has five parts, beginning with introducing the problem and background before moving into a review of related sources. After reviewing, share methods and procedures, followed by data analysis . Finally, conclude with a summary and recommendations.

A thesis statement presents the topic of your paper to the reader. It also helps you as you begin to organize your paper, much like a mission statement. Therefore, your thesis statement may change during writing as you start to present your arguments.

According to the US Forest Service, climate change issues are related to topics regarding forest management, biodiversity, and species distribution. Climate change is a broad focus that affects many topics.

To write a research paper title, a good strategy is not to write the title right away. Instead, wait until the end after you finish everything else. Then use a short and to-the-point phrase that summarizes your document. Use keywords from the paper and avoid jargon.

About us: Career Karma is a platform designed to help job seekers find, research, and connect with job training programs to advance their careers. Learn about the CK publication .

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15 Biggest Environmental Problems of 2024

15 Biggest Environmental Problems of 2024

While the climate crisis has many factors that play a role in the exacerbation of the environment, some warrant more attention than others. Here are some of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, from deforestation and biodiversity loss to food waste and fast fashion.

1. Global Warming From Fossil Fuels

2023 was the hottest year on record , with global average temperatures at 1.46C above pre-industrial levels and 0.13C higher than the eleven-month average for 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record. The year was marked by six record-breaking months and two record-breaking seasons.

What’s more, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels have never been so high . After being consistently around 280 parts per million (ppm) for almost 6,000 years of human civilisation, CO2 levels in the atmosphere are now well above 420 ppm, more than double what they were before the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Rick Spinrad, the steady annual increase is a “direct result of human activity,” mainly from the burning of fossil fuels for transportation and electricity generation but also from cement manufacturing, deforestation , and  agriculture .

This is undoubtedly one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime: as greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat, leading to global warming.

Monthly mean carbon dioxide CO2 measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. Image: Global Monitoring Laboratory

Monthly mean carbon dioxide (CO2) measured at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii. Image: Global Monitoring Laboratory

Increased emissions of greenhouse gases have led to a rapid and steady increase in global temperatures, which in turn is  causing catastrophic events all over the world – from Australia and the US experiencing some of the most devastating bushfire seasons ever recorded, locusts swarming across parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, decimating crops, and a heatwave in Antarctica that saw temperatures rise above 20C for the first time. S cientists are constantly warning that the planet has crossed a series of tipping points that could have catastrophic consequences, such as  advancing permafrost melt in Arctic regions, the Greenland ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate, accelerating sixth mass extinction , and increasing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest , just to name a few.

The climate crisis is causing tropical storms and other weather events such as hurricanes, heatwaves and flooding to be more intense and frequent than seen before. However, even if all greenhouse gas emissions were halted immediately, global temperatures would continue to rise in the coming years. That is why it is absolutely imperative that we start now to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, invest in renewable energy sources, and phase our fossil fuels as fast as possible.

You might also like: The Tipping Points of Climate Change: How Will Our World Change?

2. Poor Governance

According to economists like Nicholas Stern, the climate crisis is a result of multiple market failures .

Economists and environmentalists have urged policymakers for years to increase the price of activities that emit greenhouse gases (one of our biggest environmental problems), the lack of which constitutes the largest market failure, for example through carbon taxes, which will stimulate innovations in low-carbon technologies.

To cut emissions quickly and effectively enough, governments must not only massively increase funding for green innovation to bring down the costs of low-carbon energy sources, but they also need to adopt a range of other policies that address each of the other market failures. 

A national carbon tax is currently implemented in 27 countries around the world , including various countries in the EU, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Ukraine and Argentina. However, according to the 2019 OECD Tax Energy Use report, current tax structures are not adequately aligned with the pollution profile of energy sources. For example, the OECD suggests that carbon taxes are not harsh enough on coal production, although it has proved to be effective for the electricity industry. A carbon tax has been effectively implemented in Sweden ; the carbon tax is U$127 per tonne and has reduced emissions by 25% since 1995, while its economy has expanded 75% in the same time period. 

Further, organisations such as the United Nations are not fit to deal with the climate crisis: it was assembled to prevent another world war and is not fit for purpose. Anyway, members of the UN are not mandated to comply with any suggestions or recommendations made by the organisation. For example, the Paris Agreement , a historic deal within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), says that countries need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly so that global temperature rise is below 2C by 2100, and ideally under 1.5C. But signing on to it is voluntary, and there are no real repercussions for non-compliance. Further, the issue of equity remains a contentious issue whereby developing countries are allowed to emit more in order to develop to the point where they can develop technologies to emit less, and it allows some countries, such as China, to exploit this. 

3. Food Waste

A third of the food intended for human consumption – around 1.3 billion tons – is wasted or lost. This is enough to feed 3 billion people. Food waste and loss account for approximately one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions annually ; if it was a country, food waste would be the third-largest emitter  of greenhouse gases, behind China and the US. 

Food production accounts for around one-quarter – 26% – of global greenhouse gas emissions. Our World in Data

Food production accounts for around one-quarter – 26% – of global greenhouse gas emissions. Our World in Data

Food waste and loss occurs at different stages in developing and developed countries; in developing countries, 40% of food waste occurs at the post-harvest and processing levels, while in developed countries, 40% of food waste occurs at the retail and consumer levels. 

At the retail level, a shocking amount of food is wasted because of aesthetic reasons; in fact, in the US, more than 50% of all produce thrown away in the US is done so because it is deemed to be “too ugly” to be sold to consumers- this amounts to about 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables. This leads to food insecurity , another one of the biggest environmental problems on the list. 

You might also like: How Does Food Waste Affect the Environment?

4. Biodiversity Loss

The past 50 years have seen a rapid growth of human consumption, population, global trade and urbanisation, resulting in humanity using more of the Earth’s resources than it can replenish naturally. 

A 2020 WWF report found that the population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians have experienced a decline of an average of 68% between 1970 and 2016. The report attributes this biodiversity loss to a variety of factors, but mainly land-use change, particularly the conversion of habitats, like forests, grasslands and mangroves, into agricultural systems. Animals such as pangolins, sharks and seahorses are significantly affected by the illegal wildlife trade, and pangolins are critically endangered because of it. 

More broadly, a recent analysis has found that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating. More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years; the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. The scientists say that without the human destruction of nature, this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years. 

In Antarctica, climate change-triggered melting of sea ice is taking a heavy toll on emperor penguins and could wipe out entire populations by as early as 2100 , according to 2023 research.

You might also like: The Remarkable Benefits of Biodiversity

5. Plastic Pollution

In 1950, the world produced more than 2 million tons of plastic per year . By 2015, this annual production swelled to 419 million tons and exacerbating plastic waste in the environment. 

plastic packaging waste; plastic pollution; beverage single-use plastic bottles in landfill. Photo: PxHere

The world generates 300 million tonnes of plastic waste on average each year.

A report by science journal, Nature, determined that currently, roughly 14 million tons of plastic make their way into the oceans every year, harming wildlife habitats and the animals that live in them. The research found that if no action is taken, the plastic crisis will grow to 29 million metric tons per year by 2040. If we include microplastics into this, the cumulative amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons by 2040.

Shockingly, National Geographic found that 91% of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled, representing not only one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, but another massive market failure. Considering that plastic takes 400 years to decompose, it will be many generations until it ceases to exist. There’s no telling what the irreversible effects of plastic pollution will have on the environment in the long run. 

You might also like: 8 Shocking Plastic Pollution Statistics to Know About

6. Deforestation

Every hour, forests the size of 300 football fields are cut down. By the year 2030, the planet might have only 10% of its forests; if deforestation isn’t stopped, they could all be gone in less than 100 years. 

The three countries experiencing the highest levels of deforestation are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia. The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest – spanning 6.9 million square kilometres (2.72 million square miles) and covering around 40% of the South American continent – is also one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems and is home to about three million species of plants and animals . Despite efforts to protect forest land, legal deforestation is still rampant, and about one-third of global tropical deforestation occurs in Brazil’s Amazon forest, amounting to 1.5 million hectares each year . 

deforestation

The world has been chopping down 10 million hectares of trees every year to make space to grow crops and livestock, and to produce materials such as paper.

Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, another one of the biggest environmental problems appearing on this list. Land is cleared to raise livestock or to plant other crops that are sold, such as sugar cane and palm oil . Besides for carbon sequestration, forests help to prevent soil erosion, because the tree roots bind the soil and prevent it from washing away, which also prevents landslides. 

You might also like: 10 Deforestation Facts You Should Know About

7. Air Pollution 

One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor air pollution .

Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that an estimated 4.2 to 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide every year and that nine out of 10 people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. In Africa, 258,000 people died as a result of outdoor air pollution in 2017, up from 164,000 in 1990, according to UNICEF . Causes of air pollution mostly comes from industrial sources and motor vehicles, as well as emissions from burning biomass and poor air quality due to dust storms. 

According to a 2023 study, air pollution in South Asia – one of the most polluted areas in the world – cuts life expectancy by about 5 years . The study blames a series of factors, including a lack of adequate infrastructure and funding for the high levels of pollution in some countries. Most countries in Asia and Africa, which together contribute about 92.7% of life years lost globally due to air pollution, lack key air quality standards needed to develop adequate policies. Moreover, just 6.8% and 3.7% of governments in the two continents, respectively, provide their citizens with fully open-air quality data.

In Europe, a recent report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) showed that more than half a million people living in the European Union died from health issues directly linked to toxic pollutants exposure in 2021.

More on the topic: Less Than 1% of Global Land Area Has Safe Air Pollution Levels: Study

8. Melting Ice Caps and Sea Level Rise

The climate crisis is warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Today, sea levels are rising more than twice as quickly as they did for most of the 20th century as a result of increasing temperatures on Earth. Seas are now rising an average of 3.2 mm per year globally and they will continue to grow up to about 0.7 metres by the end of this century. In the Arctic, the Greenland Ice Sheet poses the greatest risk for sea levels because melting land ice is the main cause of rising sea levels.

Representing arguably the biggest of the environmental problems, this is made all the more concerning considering that last year’s summer triggered the loss of 60 billion tons of ice from Greenland, enough to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm in just two months . According to satellite data, the Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice in 2019: an average of a million tons per minute throughout the year, one of the biggest environmental problems that has cascading effects. If the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, sea level would rise by six metres .

Meanwhile, the Antarctic continent contributes about 1 millimetre per year to sea level rise, which is one-third of the annual global increase. According to 2023 data, the continent has lost approximately 7.5 trillion tons of ice since 1997 . Additionally, the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada in the Arctic recently collapsed, having lost about 80 square kilometres – or 40% – of its area over a two-day period in late July, according to the Canadian Ice Service .  

Over 100,000 images taken from space allowed scientists to create a comprehensive record of the state of Antarctica’s ice shelves. Credit: 66 North/Unsplash

Antarctica has lost approximately 7.5 trillion tons of ice since 1997

Sea level rise will have a devastating impact on those living in coastal regions: according to research and advocacy group Climate Central, sea level rise this century could flood coastal areas that are now home to 340 million to 480 million people , forcing them to migrate to safer areas and contributing to overpopulation and strain of resources in the areas they migrate to. Bangkok (Thailand), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Manila (Philippines), and Dubai (United Arab Emirates) are among the cities most at risk of sea level rise and flooding.

You might also like: Two-Thirds of World’s Glaciers Set to Disappear by 2100 Under Current Global Warming Scenario

9. Ocean Acidification

Global temperature rise has not only affected the surface, but it is the main cause of ocean acidification . Our oceans absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide that is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. As higher concentrations of carbon emissions are released thanks to human activities such as burning fossil fuels as well as effects of global climate change such as increased rates of wildfires, so do the amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed back into the sea. 

The smallest change in the pH scale can have a significant impact on the acidity of the ocean. Ocean acidification has devastating impacts on marine ecosystems and species, its food webs, and provoke irreversible changes in habitat quality . Once pH levels reach too low, marine organisms such as oysters, their shells and skeleton could even start to dissolve. 

However, one of the biggest environmental problems from ocean acidification is coral bleaching and subsequent coral reef loss . This is a phenomenon that occurs when rising ocean temperatures disrupt the symbiotic relationship between the reefs and algae that lives within it, driving away the algae and causing coral reefs to lose their natural vibrant colours. Some scientists have estimated coral reefs are at risk of being completely wiped by 2050. Higher acidity in the ocean would obstruct coral reef systems’ ability to rebuild their exoskeletons and recover from these coral bleaching events. 

Some studies have also found that ocean acidification can be linked as one of the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean. The accumulating bacteria and microorganisms derived from plastic garbage dumped in the ocean to damage marine ecosystems and contribute towards coral bleaching.

10. Agriculture 

Studies have shown that the global food system is responsible for up to one-third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, of which 30% comes from livestock and fisheries. Crop production releases greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide through the use of fertilisers . 

60% of the world’s agricultural area is dedicated to cattle ranching , although it only makes up 24% of global meat consumption. 

Agriculture not only covers a vast amount of land, but it also consumes a vast amount of freshwater, another one of the biggest environmental problems on this list. While arable lands and grazing pastures cover one-third of Earth’s land surfaces , they consume three-quarters of the world’s limited freshwater resources.

Scientists and environmentalists have continuously warned that we need to rethink our current food system; switching to a more plant-based diet would dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the conventional agriculture industry. 

You might also like: The Future of Farming: Can We Feed the World Without Destroying It?

11. Food and Water Insecurity

Rising temperatures and unsustainable farming practices have resulted in increasing water and food insecurity.

Globally, more than 68 billion tonnes of top-soil is eroded every year at a rate 100 times faster than it can naturally be replenished. Laden with biocides and fertiliser, the soil ends up in waterways where it contaminates drinking water and protected areas downstream. 

Furthermore, exposed and lifeless soil is more vulnerable to wind and water erosion due to lack of root and mycelium systems that hold it together. A key contributor to soil erosion is over-tilling: although it increases productivity in the short-term by mixing in surface nutrients (e.g. fertiliser), tilling is physically destructive to the soil’s structure and in the long-term leads to soil compaction, loss of fertility and surface crust formation that worsens topsoil erosion.

With the global population expected to reach 9 billion people by mid-century, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) projects that global food demand may increase by 70% by 2050 . Around the world, more than 820 million people do not get enough to eat. 

The UN secretary-general António Guterres says, “Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food security emergency that could have long term impacts on hundreds of millions of adults and children.” He urged for countries to rethink their food systems and encouraged more sustainable farming practices. 

In terms of water security, only 3% of the world’s water is freshwater , and two-thirds of that is tucked away in frozen glaciers or otherwise unavailable for our use. As a result, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year. By 2025, two-thirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. 

You might also like: Global Food Security: Why It Matters in 2023

12. Fast Fashion and Textile Waste

The global demand for fashion and clothing has risen at an unprecedented rate that the fashion industry now accounts for 10% of global carbon emissions, becoming one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. Fashion alone produces more greenhouse gas emissions than both the aviation and shipping sectors combined , and nearly 20% of global wastewater, or around 93 billion cubic metres from textile dyeing, according to the UN Environment Programme.

What’s more, the world at least generated an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste every year and that number is expected to soar up to 134 million tonnes a year by 2030. Discarded clothing and textile waste, most of which is non-biodegradable, ends up in landfills, while microplastics from clothing materials such as polyester, nylon, polyamide, acrylic and other synthetic materials, is leeched into soil and nearby water sources. Monumental amounts of clothing textile are also dumped in less developed countries as seen with Chile’s Atacama , the driest desert in the world, where at least 39,000 tonnes of textile waste from other nations are left there to rot.

fast fashion waste

Of the 100 billion garments produced each year, 92 million tonnes end up in landfills.

This rapidly growing issue is only exacerbated by the ever-expanding fast fashion business model, in which companies relies on cheap and speedy production of low quality clothing to meet the latest and newest trends. While the United Nations Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action sees signatory fashion and textile companies to commit to achieving net zero emission by 2050, a majority of businesses around the world have yet to address their roles in climate change.

While these are some of the biggest environmental problems plaguing our planet, there are many more that have not been mentioned, including overfishing, urban sprawl, toxic superfund sites and land use changes. While there are many facets that need to be considered in formulating a response to the crisis, they must be coordinated, practical and far-reaching enough to make enough of a difference. 

You might also like: Fast Fashion and Its Environmental Impact

13. Overfishing

Over three billion people around the world rely on fish as their primary source of protein. About 12% of the world relies upon fisheries in some form or another, with 90% of these being small-scale fishermen – think a small crew in a boat, not a ship, using small nets or even rods and reels and lures not too different from the kind you probably use . Of the 18.9 million fishermen in the world, 90% of them fall under the latter category.

Most people consume approximately twice as much food as they did 50 years ago and there are four times as many people on earth as there were at the close of the 1960s. This is one driver of the 30% of commercially fished waters being classified as being ‘overfished’. This means that the stock of available fishing waters is being depleted faster than it can be replaced.

Overfishing comes with detrimental effects on the environment, including increased algae in the water, destruction of fishing communities, ocean littering as well as extremely high rates of biodiversity loss.

As part of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 14) , the UN and FAO are working towards maintaining the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels. This, however, requires much stricter regulations of the world’s oceans than the ones already in place. In July 2022, the WTO banned fishing subsidies to reduce global overfishing in a historic deal. Indeed, subsidies for fuel, fishing gear, and building new vessels, only incentivise overfishing and represent thus a huge problem. 

You might also like: 7 Solutions to Overfishing We Need Right Now

14. Cobalt Mining

Cobalt is quickly becoming the defining example of the mineral conundrum at the heart of the renewable energy transition . As a key component of battery materials that power electric vehicles (EVs), cobalt is facing a sustained surge in demand as decarbonisation efforts progress. The  world’s largest cobalt supplier is the Democratic Republic of Congo  (DRC), where it is estimated that up to a fifth of the production is produced through artisanal miners.

Cobalt mining , however, is associated with  dangerous workers’ exploitation and other serious environmental and social issues. The environmental costs of cobalt mining activities are also substantial. Southern regions of the DRC are not only home to cobalt and copper, but also large amounts of uranium. In mining regions, scientists have made note of high radioactivity levels. In addition, mineral mining, similar to other industrial mining efforts, often produces pollution that leaches into neighbouring rivers and water sources. Dust from pulverised rock is known to cause breathing problems for local communities as well.

15. Soil Degradation

Organic matter is a crucial component of soil as it allows it to absorb carbon from the atmosphere. Plants absorb CO2 from the air naturally and effectively through photosynthesis and part of this carbon is stored in the soil as  soil organic carbon (SOC). Healthy soil has a minimum of 3-6% organic matter. However, almost everywhere in the world, the content is much lower than that.

According to the United Nations, about 40% of the planet’s soil is degraded . Soil degradation refers to the loss of organic matter, changes in its structural condition and/or decline in soil fertility and it is often the result of human activities, such as traditional farming practices including the use of toxic chemicals and pollutants. If business as usual continued through 2050, experts project additional degradation of an area almost the size of South America. But there is more to it. If we do not change our reckless practices and step up to preserve soil health, food security for billions of people around the world will be irreversibly compromised, with an estimated 40% less food  expected to be produced in 20 years’ time despite the world’s population projected to reach 9.3 billion people.

Featured image by Roy Mangersnes (Earth.Org Photographer)

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    research questions about environmental issues

  3. What is an Environmental Questionnaire?

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  5. 🌷 Ecological problems of today essay. 📚 Ecological Issues in This Free

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  6. Environmental and Social Issues Questionnaire

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  1. Environmental issues and concerns (Model )

  2. Research methods in environmental psychology APSY-232 SEMESTER 3 PUNJAB UNIVERSITY

  3. Environmental Issues

  4. Differences between Environmental Sciences and Studies

  5. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES || Most Important Topics for NEET Exam

  6. Approaches to Environmental Studies

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  1. A list of the 100 best environmental research topics

    Environmental research paper topics cover numerous issues which usually overlap with chemistry, biology, oceanography, civil engineering, water resources engineering, zoology, and the gas and oil industry. Simply put, there's a great variety of topics you can choose from. What makes one topic better than the other, though?

  2. 180 Environmental Research Topics & Questions to Write about

    6 min Updated: July 11th, 2022 Print 180 Environmental Research Topics & Questions to Write about (29 votes) Environment affects us all, whether we want it or not. Political leaders and students alike discuss ways to tackle environmental topics & issues. Some might argue about the role humans play in all this.

  3. Environmental Topics

    EPA's resources on environmental issues include research, basics, what you can do, and an index covering more specific terms. EPA's resources on environmental issues include research, basics, what you can do, and an index covering more specific terms. ... EPA's environmental topics guides you to the most popular pages in your topic of interest.

  4. 100+ Environmental Science Research Topics

    Topics & Ideas: Ecological Science The impact of land-use change on species diversity and ecosystem functioning in agricultural landscapes The role of disturbances such as fire and drought in shaping arid ecosystems The impact of climate change on the distribution of migratory marine species

  5. 500+ Environmental Research Topics

    Environmental Research Topics are as follows: Climate change and its impacts on ecosystems and society The effectiveness of carbon capture and storage technology The role of biodiversity in maintaining healthy ecosystems The impact of human activity on soil quality The impact of plastic pollution on marine life

  6. Environmental Issues Research Paper Topics

    100 Environmental Issues Research Paper Topics The field of environmental science is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering, law, and even healthcare. That is why it is imperative to create a comprehensive and engaging list of environmental issues research paper topics.

  7. Top 10 Environmental Science Research Topics

    Whether you're majoring in environmental science or hoping to write a compelling research paper, here are some of the most interesting environmental science topics you can pursue right now. 1. Climate Change. One thing is certain: We'll always have an environment. The question is whether or not it'll be an environment we can actually live in.

  8. Environmental issues are health issues: Making a case and setting an

    Increasing demands on ecosystems, decreasing biodiversity, and climate change are among the most pressing environmental issues of our time. As changing weather conditions are leading to increased vector-borne diseases and heat- and flood-related deaths, it is entering collective consciousness: environmental issues are human health issues. In public health, the field addressing these issues is ...

  9. Top 15 Conservation Issues of 2021 Include Big Threats—and Potential

    For the resulting study, which was funded by the U.K.'s Natural Environment Research Council and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the panel winnowed down an initial list of 97 topics, settling on the following 15 because of their novelty or their potential to move the conservation needle in either a positive or negative direction o...

  10. What Is an Environmental Problem?

    Abstract This paper advances two arguments about environmental problems. First, it interrogates the strength and limitations of empiricist accounts of problems and issues offered by actor-network theory.

  11. 50 Best Environmental Science Research Topics

    1) Specific Research questions need to clearly identify and define the focus of your research. Without sufficient detail, your research will likely be too broad or imprecise in focus to yield meaningful insights. For example, you might initially be interested in addressing this question: How should governments address the effects of climate change?

  12. Environmental Justice Research: Contemporary Issues and Emerging Topics

    This Special Issue of the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH) incorporates 19 articles that broaden EJ research by considering emerging topics such as energy, food, drinking water, flooding, sustainability, and gender dynamics, including issues in Canada, the UK, and Eastern Europe.

  13. Twenty Key Challenges in Environmental and Resource Economics

    Of course, the list of topics has already been very diverse in the past but has increasingly become so with recent global environmental problems challenging the functioning of a world economy which is growing at a high rate and heavily relies on an international division of labour and trade.

  14. Environmental sciences

    Atom. RSS Feed. Environmental science is the multidisciplinary study of all aspects of the Earth's physical and biological environments. It encompasses environmental chemistry, soil science ...

  15. 235 Environmental Science Research Topics & Ideas for Papers

    Environmental topics for a research paper can be overwhelming to navigate due to the vast number of issues you can discuss in your article. To help narrow down your research paper search, below is a list of environmental research topics that include climate change, renewable energy, ecology, pollution, sustainability, endangered species ...

  16. 42 questions with answers in ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES

    Kristaq Hazizi Jun 19, 2023 Answer The decision by the European Parliament to only authorize the sale of vehicles emitting no CO2 from 2035, effectively banning the sale of new vehicles with...

  17. Research Topic List: Climate Change and Environmental Issues

    While climate change and environmental issues have become increasingly controversial issues in the past thirty years, it has been a threat for much longer. If this is an area of interest to you, please select one of the three historical events on the menu to the left for your course work to begin exploring their environmental impact.

  18. What Is Environmental Research? 15 Topics To Consider

    Environmental research topics refer to conditions of the physical, chemical and biological aspects of the environment. This can include human activity, living organisms, weather and naturally occurring landmarks. Environmental research focuses largely on conservation or prevention. Many professionals may perform environmental research, such as ...

  19. Environmental Issues Research Paper

    Many perspectives seek to explain this relationship. Social scientists look toward dialogue and cultural perspectives to trace the history of environmental concern. Historically, humans have understood their role to be one of dominion over nature.

  20. Climate Change Research Topics

    Understanding climate change is a broad climate change research topic. With this, you can introduce different research methods for tracking climate change and showing a focused effect on specific areas, such as the impact on water availability in certain geographic areas. 6. Carbon Emissions Impact of Climate Change.

  21. 88 questions with answers in ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

    International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601) IF: 4.614 ... to sustainability issues in value and supply chains. and so, environmental impacts arising from ...

  22. 15 Biggest Environmental Problems of 2024

    Here are some of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, from deforestation and biodiversity loss to food waste and fast fashion. — 1. Global Warming From Fossil Fuels

  23. Jian Yang

    Director of Graduate Studies Research Interests Dr. Yang's research mainly involves broad-scale environmental and ecological questions that are closely related with forest landscape ecology, ecosystem modeling, wildland fire science, and climate change. He is particularly interested in understanding the role of disturbance and spatial structure on the flow of nutrients and energy and the ...