The National Academy of Sciences says evidence supporting a 2009 U.S. government finding that climate change threatens public health is “beyond scientific dispute” and that evidence supporting that finding has only grown stronger.

A top independent science panel says the U.S. needs to generate less plastic so less of the material ends up as waste in oceans and other waterways.

AdThe report looks at three possible ways to cool the air: Putting heat-reflecting particles in the stratosphere, changing the brightness of ocean clouds and thinning high clouds. “I honestly don’t know whether or not it’s going to make sense,” said committee chairman Chris Field of Stanford University. AdTexas A&M University’s Andrew Dessler sees geoengineering as a safety feature for the planet, like car airbags you hope to never need. “Sometimes you have to examine very risky options when the stakes are as high as they are with climate change.”Ad___Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears. ___The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education.

Children can still become infected and spread the illness to other children and adults. But compared to older adults, children develop severe illness much less often. A new study published in the Science Translational Medicine journal looked at the immune response to COVID-19 in 65 children and 65 adults. READ: CDC says new guidance on airborne coronavirus transmission was ‘posted in error’Some children still do develop severe disease. Children infected with SARS-CoV-2 do not develop as severe illness as adults -- even among children who develop multi-system inflammatory syndrome, death is rare.