Environment

The Amazon rainforest is on the precipice of a catastrophic collapse from which it may never return. The traditional knowledge that once helped cultivate this precious ecosystem could now help it recover, according to new research by researchers from the University of São Paulo, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, and the National Institute for Amazonian

Vietnam has reported a record-high temperature, with climate experts warning such extreme weather events would continue. The country’s scientists have warned that global warming is exacerbating adverse weather, with the region sweltering under a heatwave in April – when neighboring countries also registered record temperatures. A temperature of 44.1 degrees Celsius (111.38 degrees Fahrenheit) was

The United Nations warned Wednesday of a growing likelihood the weather phenomenon El Niño will develop in coming months, fueling higher global temperatures and possibly new heat records. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said it now estimated there was a 60 percent chance that El Niño would develop by the end of July, and an

Since the 18th century, humans have been taking fossil fuels out of their safe storage deep underground and burning them to generate electricity or power machinery. We’ve now converted coal, oil, and gas into more than two trillion metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and added them to the atmosphere. The

Scientists are alarmed as sea surface temperatures stubbornly maintain record-breaking highs for more than a month, pushing the state of Earth’s oceans into uncharted territory. Starting in mid-March, data from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) leaps dramatically from earlier recordings, following lows of both Arctic and Antarctic sea ice this year. Dark

Global temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, and that means more extreme heat waves more of the time. To better prepare for what lies ahead, researchers from across the UK have identified the countries most at risk from heat wave harm. This isn’t just countries where heat waves are expected to be likely. The

I was part of a team that recently discovered human-made pollutants in one of the deepest and most remote places on Earth – the Atacama Trench, which goes down to a depth of 8,000 meters (26,246 feet) in the Pacific Ocean. The presence of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in such a remote location emphasizes a crucial

If you think your morning commute is a logjam, you should see the Mackenzie River Delta in Nunavut, Canada. Unlike logjams of idling trucks, sedans, and SUVs, this literal logjam stores carbon. Covering some 51 square kilometers (nearly 20 square miles) it’s the largest-known cumulative logjam on Earth, consisting of fallen trees that have floated

Slowly and unsurely, humanity is weaning itself off coal. That’s good because coal is the most carbon-intensive fossil fuel and a major driver of human-induced climate change. But it’s not good enough. According to a new study, humans are quitting coal too slowly to meet targets set under the Paris Agreement, the international treaty on

Ambitious targets intended to slam the brakes on our current mass extinction may already be slipping out of reach barely a year after they were established, new research suggests. Data on birds and mammals reveal there’s a huge time lag between environmental change and its impact on animal populations, of up to 45 years depending

Researchers have just calculated the value society gets from a common but hidden underwater resource, and found it’s way higher than we ever expected. Kelp forests have long done so much for humanity, all the while operating out of sight beneath the waves. Hugging a third of our coastlines, they provide food and homes for

Almost a third of the world’s plastic waste is polypropylene, a hardy plastic used to make bottle caps and food containers that can take hundreds of years to degrade. But now, scientists have harnessed two strains of fungi found in soils to break down lab samples of polypropylene in just 140 days. The two fungi,

Coastal critters thought to be strangers to the open ocean have been found amongst the seething mass of plastic waste that is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. “The issues of plastic go beyond just ingestion and entanglement,” Linsey Haram, a marine ecologist formerly at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, explained when in the process of

Home runs are exhilarating – those lofting moments when everyone looks skyward, baseball players and fans alike, anxiously awaiting the outcome: run or out, win or loss, elation or despair. Over the past several Major League Baseball seasons, home run numbers have climbed dramatically, including Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62 homers for the New York Yankees

Off the coast of Antarctica, trillions of tons of cold salty water sink to great depths. As the water sinks, it drives the deepest flows of the “overturning” circulation – a network of strong currents spanning the world’s oceans. The overturning circulation carries heat, carbon, oxygen, and nutrients around the globe, and fundamentally influences climate,

It probably comes as no surprise to people living in low-lying coastal regions, but sea waters are rising by large, measurable amounts. That assessment comes from NASA, which has analyzed 30 years of sea-level satellite measurements. The news is not good. Since 1993, the seas rose by a total of 9.1 centimeters. Two years ago,

A cross between a domestic pig and wild boar was bred in Canada decades ago. After escaping captivity, the “super pigs” spread throughout the country, wreaking havoc on native species and crops. Now, they may be making their way into the US. “They are the worst invasive large mammal on the planet. Period,” Ryan Brook,

The threat of rising seas is often framed in terms of inundation risk, with a focus on what ends up underwater. But in areas where the coastal landscape isn’t entirely flat, rising seas can also pose a much more insidious threat, cutting residents off from essential services. According to a new study, many living along

Despite a global ban in place since 2010, atmospheric concentrations of five ozone-depleting chemicals have reached a record high. Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are entirely man-made gasses used in a variety of applications, including refrigeration, air conditioning, or as chemical solvents. They have been increasingly regulated by a series of international treaties since the 1980s. The

Scientists are increasingly worried about climate tipping points, where certain thresholds are reached that drive further warming. It’s almost like a runaway train heading off a cliff – we’re getting near the point where it’s too late to put the brakes on. A new study identifies two of these tipping points in relation to the

The world is direly addicted to plastics. Try as we might to recycle them, plastics are cheaper to make anew, so unthinkable amounts of plastic waste are dumped into landfill and are clogging up our oceans. From all the new plastics ever made, over 6 billion metric tons of plastic waste (that doesn’t decompose but

The world hungers for more food while wildlife yearns for untouched habitats. So goes the conflict between our seemingly insatiable need for agricultural land, razing forests to make way for cattle and crops. But an unlikely food source could go some way to ameliorating the loss of forested lands to agriculture. A new study suggests

The world will cross the key 1.5 degree Celsius global warming limit in about a decade, the United Nations (UN) said Monday, warning that devastating impacts of climate change are hitting faster than expected. ​In the final instalment of a major series of reports, delivered in a crucial decade in human history, the UN’s climate

In 2013, a monstrous marine heatwave known as ‘The Blob’ developed off the coast of Alaska and soon stretched as far south as Mexico along the Pacific coast of North America. It lingered far longer than anyone expected, decimating fisheries, triggering toxic algal blooms, disturbing kelp forests, and starving sea birds of food. At one

Millions of dead and rotting fish have clogged a vast stretch of river near a remote town in the Australian outback as a searing heat wave sweeps through the region. ​Videos posted to social media showed boats plowing through a blanket of dead fish smothering the water, with the surface barely visible underneath. ​The New

The operator of a nuclear facility in Minnesota said on Thursday the plant suffered a leak last November of water containing radioactive tritium, but that contamination was largely limited to the plant itself. Xcel Energy, operator of the nuclear plant northwest of Minneapolis in the Midwest state of Minnesota, did not say why it waited

An enormous stretch of seaweed measuring 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) wide is set to bring stench, pests, and bacteria to the beaches of Florida and Mexico. The “Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt” is a massive bloom of brown algae that stretches from the coast of West Africa to the Gulf of Mexico. It is the largest

An eight-year survey of the famous SS Thistlegorm shipwreck has revealed that it’s been transformed by marine life into an artificial reef, where dozens of different species have made their home. A team of researchers from the University of Bologna in Italy enlisted the help of volunteer divers to check off organisms on a list

Each year, hundreds of mountaineers camp at the South Col on Mount Everest’s southern side in preparation for their attempt to reach the roof of the world. While these adventure seekers may be taking home some well-deserved bragging rights, a new study shows they may also be leaving behind some tenacious microbes that seem capable

The smoke from recent wildfires is threatening to slow and even reverse the recovery of Earth’s ozone layer – the same one that the world has worked so hard to heal since 1987. The ozone layer is a crucial part of the stratosphere that stops our planet from getting scorched by the Sun’s radiation. It’s

An enormous carpet of seaweed stretching 5,000 miles (8,047 kilometers) is set to cause problems along the beaches of Florida and Mexico as scientists become increasingly concerned about the impacts of the algae. The “Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt” is a massive bloom of brown algae that stretches from the coast of West Africa to the

A Lufthansa flight that had to land shortly after takeoff is just the latest example of extreme turbulence. Each year, pilots report an average of 5,500 encounters with severe or greater turbulence. And that number has increased in recent years, thanks to climate change. Several other events have occurred in 2023 alone. The pilot had

Plastic pollution in the world’s oceans has reached “unprecedented levels” over the past 15 years, a new study has found, calling for a legally binding international treaty to stop the harmful waste. Ocean plastic pollution is a persistent problem around the globe – animals may become entangled in larger pieces of plastic like fishing nets,

Japanese authorities are preparing to release treated radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, nearly 12 years after the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This will relieve pressure on more than 1,000 storage tanks, creating much-needed space for other vital remediation works. But the plan has attracted controversy. At first glance, releasing radioactive water into the ocean does

Japan could soon add more than 7,000 islands to its official list of land masses, more than doubling the number found in a tally conducted in 1987. It may sound absurd to have overlooked so many hulking chunks of land in previous counts, but with 370,000 square kilometers (140,000 square miles) of territory making up

One of the most plastic-contaminated birds in the whole world is silently suffering from a novel, emerging disease scientists have coined ‘plasticosis’. It’s reportedly the first time researchers have ever documented and quantified the pathological effects of ingested plastic in wild animals, and it’s got scientists stressing about the health of more than just one

Nearly 40 years ago, the world’s worst nuclear disaster turned the Ukrainian city of Pripyat and its nearby power plant, Chernobyl, into a radioactive hot zone – and surprisingly, decades later, a haven for wildlife. Wolves, wild horses, birds, bison, elk, frogs, and dogs roam among the decaying concrete buildings and surrounding forests of what

Our addiction to online shopping is contributing to the recent spike in whale deaths, The New York Times reports. Since early December, 23 whales have washed up dead along the East Coast, according to data the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided to The Times. Their deaths are due to a confluence of factors, both

Antarctic sea ice likely shrunk to a record low last week, US researchers said Monday, its lowest extent in the 45 years of satellite record-keeping.​ The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) at the University of Colorado Boulder said that Antarctica’s sea ice fell to 1.79 million square kilometers (691,000 million square miles) on

Even if we manage to stabilize Earth’s temperatures by peaking at 2 °C, Greenland’s and Antarctica’s vast ice sheets are on track for irreversible melting, a new study warns. “If we miss this emission goal, the ice sheets will disintegrate and melt at an accelerated pace, according to our calculations,” explains climate physicist Axel Timmermann

Animals are contaminated with hazardous forever chemicals on every continent except Antarctica, according to a new report. Creatures ranging from tigers and polar bears, to red pandas and voles, to plankton in the sea, are likely accumulating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) by eating fish, drinking water, or simply breathing air, and it could put

Over the past century, the Earth’s average temperature has swiftly increased by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit). The evidence is hard to dispute. It comes from thermometers and other sensors around the world. But what about the thousands of years before the Industrial Revolution, before thermometers, and before humans warmed the climate by

New footage has revealed Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier is shrinking from below in a way scientists hadn’t expected – with melting happening rapidly along the cracks and crevasses in its base. Though the ice loss is slower than predicted in other sections, the 130 kilometer (80 mile) wide, Florida-sized glacier could still contribute more than 65

The Antarctic Ocean area covered by ice has shrunk to a record low, exposing the thicker ice shelves buttressing Antarctica’s ground ice sheet to waves and warmer temperatures, scientists reported Thursday. The National Snow and Ice Data Center in the United States said Antarctica’s sea ice fell to 1.91 million square kilometers (737,000 square miles)

Following the February 3 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, users on social media began sharing photos of an ominous black cloud hanging over the town – and fears that the disaster would become the new Chernobyl. A fire engulfed a Norfolk Southern train after 50 of its 150 cars derailed. The train carried 10

We know volcanoes can cause dramatic shifts in the atmosphere when they erupt, but what about those long stretches of time when they appear to have fallen silent? A new study suggests that dormant volcanoes could be leaking out much more sulfur than we thought. In fact, we might have underestimated sulfur output from sleeping

With each passing year, the effects of rising global temperatures become even more obvious, while the chances of avoiding greater catastrophes in the future retreat like every melting glacier. Desperate to avoid worst-case scenarios, researchers have proposed various measures that could, at the very least, buy us the time we might need to mature as

From soaring coastal redwoods to dinosaur-era Wollemi pines and firs that make the perfect Christmas trees, even our most revered woody plants are in an awful lot of trouble. But it turns out that losing some species won’t just endanger local forests; it will threaten entire ecosystems, research shows. In 2021, a global assessment titled