Environment

In presentations of global warming, sometimes watching maps morph from blue (cold) to red (hot) grows tiresome. Talented data visualizers are finding new and creative ways to illustrate the warming of the planet. The latest visualization of Earth heating up was built by Antti Lipponen, a research scientist at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, and it

Cigarette butts are among the most abundant types of human-produced garbage in the world’s oceans. Most of the roughly 5.5 trillion cigarettes manufactured globally every year contain a plastic-based filter, made of cellulose acetate, according to the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project. Those filters can take decades to decompose after the cigarette butt has been discarded.

It has its directive: seek and destroy. And the underwater drone RangerBot is ready to put its lethal skills to work on Australia’s horrifically threatened Great Barrier Reef. But it’s not the coral that’s the target of its deadly focus. RangerBot is more like a bodyguard, trying to protect the reef from one of its

First, New Zealand declared war on dirty-clawed predators – stoats, rats, weasels – and there was little to be missed. But as the fight comes to the kitties, some owners are paws-sitively outraged. New Zealand’s efforts to protect its most rarefied creatures are turning to a measure that has rattled many cat owners: banning feline

The Arctic is not in a good way. Its oldest, thickest sea ice is breaking. Strange lakes punctuate its landscape. The very chemistry of its water is changing. Things could be about to get worse. New research has uncovered evidence of a vast reservoir of heated water building up underneath the Arctic Ocean and penetrating

Humans have been regularly traversing the Atlantic Ocean for going on six centuries, establishing the most efficient trade routes to haul people and goods, sharing details of the best places to pick up the speediest winds, occasionally using radar and satellites to thread a plane through a Category 5 hurricane. But for all our knowledge

It was the early 1970s and the future of human civilisation had never looked brighter. There was only one problem. A mathematical model developed by a pioneering computer engineer at MIT had predicted something terrifying. Something so terrifying, in fact, that it basically signalled the end of human civilisation on Earth. The model, based on

As Europe wilts in the sweltering, record-breaking harshness of summer 2018, strange things are happening. Mysterious outlines of ancient societies have revealed themselves across the seared landscape, but it’s not just traces of ghostly architecture resurfacing. So too are grim words of warning. Inscribed boulders known as ‘hunger stones’ are reappearing in Czechia after a

Two years ago, 323 reindeer in southeast Norway were struck by lightning and died. Many of the animals were found on top of each other on a remote mountain plateau. Norwegian officials said they had never seen a case like it before. Authorities flew in to remove the dead reindeer’s heads for a study on diseases

NASA’s Worldview program has some bad news. The Earth is on fire. The red points in the picture above are areas around the world with fires actively burning, accurate as of Thursday. It doesn’t look great. The Worldview website lets you look at current events happening across the planet. One of those events is wildfires,

They’re the vilest, most unthinkable horrors you could ever imagine lurking in the sewers underneath our cities. Even Pennywise is terrified of them. They’re called fatbergs: vast deposits of congealed fat and grease stuck together with soiled diapers, condoms, tampons, wet wipes, you name it. But these stomach-churning accumulations that clog up sewer systems could

The breakdown of some of the oldest and thickest sea ice in the Arctic has occurred for the first time in recorded history. Not once, but twice this year, the breaking ice has opened waters north of Greenland that are usually frozen even in summer. It’s partially the result of climate change-driven heatwaves and warm

Before its mysterious collapse more than 1,000 years ago, the Maya civilisation in Mesoamerica was home to one of the densest populations in human history. But as the ancient and burgeoning civilisation spread across the Yucatan peninsula, it left a pernicious mark on the environment that can still be observed today. A new study shows

The Arctic permafrost really should stay frozen. In many places it’s been frozen for tens of thousands of years, locking away greenhouse gasses and ancient diseases. Unfortunately, our planet’s changing climate is denting permafrosts around the world. And now NASA-funded research has confirmed that the expected gradual thawing of the Arctic permafrost is being dramatically

A new report reveals that a shocking amount of contact lens users – nearly 20 percent – dispose of those little plastic circles in a terribly irresponsible way, by flushing them down the toilet or the drain of the sink. Of an estimated 45 million US contact lens wearers, that’s around 9 million right there.

At the time of writing, more than 430 people have died following an earthquake in the Indonesian island of Lombok. A further 2,500 people have been hospitalised with serious injuries and over 270,000 people have been displaced. Earthquakes are one of the deadliest natural disasters, accounting for just 7.5 percent of such events between 1994 and

The headlines of record-crushing heat in the Northern Hemisphere began in June and haven’t stopped midway through August. Scores of locations on every continent north of the equator have witnessed their hottest weather in recorded history. The swelter has intensified raging wildfires in western North America, Scandinavia and Siberia, while leading to heat-related deaths in Japan and eastern

During this week 106 years ago, New Zealand was talking about the future of our planet. The predictions weren’t uplifting. On August 14, 1912, a newspaper called the Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette printed a prescient paragraph in its “science notes and news” section. The brief note warned that Earth’s atmosphere was

Scientists just worked out a way of rapidly producing a mineral capable of storing carbon dioxide (CO2) – giving us a potentially exciting option for dealing with our increasingly overcooked planet. Magnesite, which is a type of magnesium carbonate, forms when magnesium combines with carbonic acid – CO2 dissolved in water. If we can produce

The shredded carcasses of microscopic marine algae could play an important role in the formation of clouds over the world’s oceans, a new study has found. We all know clouds form as microscopic water droplets in the air condense on the surface of microscopic particles. These particles can be soluble – such as where salt crystals

The past four years have been the four warmest ever recorded – and now, according to a new scientific forecast, the next five will also probably be “anomalously warm,” even beyond what the steady increase in global warming would produce on its own. That could include another record warmest year, even warmer than the current

Earth is a pretty big place, but it’s not as big as our appetite. That’s the conclusion of a new study by researchers in Canada, who calculated that if the entire world population tried to eat what the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) actually recommends, we wouldn’t have enough farms to feed everybody. “The

If you’ve been paying attention, you know that corvids (crows, rooks and ravens) are remarkably intelligent birds. Now these feathered geniuses have been given a job: six rooks have been trained to pick up rubbish in the Puy du Fou historical theme park in western France. Whenever Boubou, Bamboo, Bill, Black, Bricole and Baco deposit

A fire in Glacier National Park, in Montana’s Rocky Mountains, has sparked evacuations over the weekend as record heat and high winds caused the fire to spread. The Howe Ridge Fire first ignited over the weekend after lightning struck on Saturday. The wildfire spread rapidly as triple-digit temperatures and high winds fed the flames. Over

The saying goes that the Taj Mahal is pinkish in the morning, milky white in the evening, and golden when the moon shines. Though this may once have been true for the famously pristine marble monument, a mixture of pollution and poor management has now burdened the Taj with a 24-hour layer of yellowy-brown. Condemning

The heat wave that has swept Europe over the summer may not be very pleasant for the human population, but rare pink tropical birds at a nature reserve in southwest England sure seem excited. Officials at Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) Slimbridge, a wetland wildlife reserve in Gloucestershire, said in a statement Thursday that six Andean flamingos laid

Scientists are pondering what might be called the volcanic solution to global warming. It would be the ultimate desperate measure, a climatological Hail Mary and, possibly, a very bad idea. The only reason it’s an actual subject of research is that human civilization has failed to take steps to stave off dangerous levels of climate

Our society has collectively decided that some weather is better than others. When was the last time 50 degrees Fahrenheit with rain was described as nice weather? How often do tourists flock to destinations where it’s 100 degrees with suffocating humidity? While it’s admittedly hard for even two people to agree on what ideal weather is,

The coasts are gone. The waves crash high into what were once mountains. Many have perished, for food is scarce, and the deadly heat is inescapable. This bleak future scenario – called a “Hothouse Earth” – could be realised sooner than we think, scientists warn, if the planet breaches a pivotal climate threshold from which

County Wicklow in Ireland, has had a recent spate of wildfires threatening homes and forests. However, one good thing has emerged from this troubling situation – a message, hidden since the Second World War. The burnt remains of a gorse fire on Bray Head has revealed a sign saying ‘EIRE’ made of rocks, which would have

On September 8, a massive and controversial plastic-cleaning system will be launched into the Pacific Ocean. The goal of the system, created by The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit organisation founded in 2013 by 24-year-old Dutch innovator Boyan Slat, is to remove plastic debris from the now-famous marine area known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch“.

The southern peak of the massif of Kebnekaise is the tallest mountain in Sweden, but it might not hold the title for much longer – after a week of particularly hot weather, the mountain has started to shrink. In fact, the glacier-topped southern peak might already be lower than the rocky northern peak, after four

Mounting science is painting a very bleak picture of a future of soaring temperatures, and the accompanying death toll those soaring temperatures will demand. New research has given us the first solid prediction of how more heatwaves like the one that’s struck Europe this year will affect future death rates, finding tropical heatwaves in some

Last July, California’s Death Valley endured the hottest month ever measured on the planet. This July ended up even hotter. Over both day and night, the temperature at Death Valley averaged 42.3 degrees Celsius (108.1 Fahrenheit), ahead of the mark set a year ago by about a half-degree. That previous mark had broken a record

Hopes for fewer large wildfires in 2018, after last year’s disastrous fire season, are rapidly disappearing across the West. Six deaths have been reported in Northern California’s Carr Fire, including two firefighters. Fires have scorched Yosemite, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Sequoia and Grand Canyon national parks. A blaze in June forced Colorado to shut down the

The mantle beneath Tibet has been torn into four massive pieces, according to a new computer model that gives an unprecedented glimpse at what’s going on under the surface our planet. Determining exactly what’s happening so far underground isn’t always easy, but can help in everything from predicting earthquakes to understanding how terrain evolves over

The headlines in recent months read like an international eco-thriller. At Mauna Loa Observatory, perched high on a Hawaiian volcano, researchers measure unusual levels of CFC-11 in the atmosphere. The measurements baffle the scientific community: CFC-11, a potent ozone-depleting gas, has been carefully monitored since it was banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. But the

Tāne Mahuta is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest living being – but the 45 metre tall, 2,500-year-old kauri tree is under severe threat from a devastating disease. Nearly a decade after the discovery of kauri dieback disease, it is continuing to spread largely unchecked through the northern part of the North Island. Thousands of kauri trees

The Carr Fire tearing through Northern California is so powerful that it’s creating its own weather patterns. The explosive blaze reached the city of Redding on Thursday night. By Saturday morning, the fire grew to 80,906 acres and is only around 5 percent contained, according to officials. The fire has destroyed 500 structures, and officials say 5,000 more are threatened. Around

The first comprehensive mapping of ocean wilderness revealed that no part of the ocean is untouched by humans, and only 13 percent could be classified as “wilderness.” “Nowhere is safe,” said James Watson of the University of Queensland, an author on the study, in a video abstract for the report. The exhaustive analysis of human

Amelia Earhart waded into the Pacific Ocean and climbed into her downed and disabled Lockheed Electra. She started the engine, turned on the two-way radio and sent out a plea for help, one more desperate than previous messages. The high tide was getting higher, she had realized. Soon it would suck the plane into deeper

“Dozens of raccoons die from viral ‘zombie’ outbreak” scream the headlines. That sounds pretty terrifying. Grab your emergency supply kit and your dog and head for the hills. Actually, maybe not. As far as we know, there is no ‘zombie’ outbreak or zombie virus on the loose, but what’s actually going on is a serious

Earlier this month, a small island village in remote northwestern Greenland slipped into the shadow of an epic, monstrous iceberg. Living just north of the Upernavik Ice Fjord, the people of Innaarsuit are used to seeing large icebergs drift by. But in recent memory, there has never been a visitor quite this big. Weighing in

Grey wolves are among the top predators on the Arctic tundra, but there’s a little fellow underfoot who has their lupine compadres beat. A calculation for a new paper estimates that, in terms of raw biomass, the wolf spider outweighs the grey wolf by just over 80 to 1. That, friends, is a lot of

In 2015, 96 million floating plastic ‘shade’ balls were dumped into the reservoir of drought-embattled Los Angeles. It was a plan to save water by preventing evaporation – and it did – but there was one big wet elephant in the room that was somehow overlooked. Manufacturing that many plastic balls actually used more water

The radioactive fallout of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 cast an irrevocable toll on the environment within Japan – and outside of it – and years later, the legacy of its toxic contamination is still being discovered. Even the sun-kissed vineyards of California weren’t immune to Fukushima’s shadow, it seems, with scientists having now

We all know that helium makes your voice all squeaky like a chipmunk, but in the last few years, there’s been a new voice-altering gas on the block. It’s an ultra-dense substance called sulfur hexafluoride, and it makes your voice go all deep and demony. The science behind this is actually really cool. When lighter-than-air

Poring over four decades of satellite data, climate scientists have concluded for the first time that humans are pushing seasonal temperatures out of balance – shifting what one researcher called the very “march of the seasons themselves.” Ever-mindful of calculable uncertainty and climate deniers, the authors give “odds of roughly 5 in 1 million” of