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

Preserving populations of critically endangered forest elephants is crucial not just for the animals themselves, but to protect the carbon-sucking capacities of the environments they live in, a new study demonstrates. The rainforest of central and west Africa, which is the second largest on Earth, could lose 6 to 9 percent of its atmospheric carbon

Glaciers are melting, putting the lives of millions around the world at risk of flash flooding, according to a new study. Most of those people reside in just four countries – India, Pakistan, Peru, and China – where glacial lakes are numerous and populations are vulnerable to climate disasters. Glaciers are ‘rivers of ice‘ that

Experts have warned that the recent detection of bird flu in mammals including foxes, otters, minks, seals, and even grizzly bears is concerning but emphasized that the virus would have to significantly mutate to spread between humans. Since late 2021, Europe has been gripped by its worst-ever outbreak of bird flu, with North and South

It can be tempting to think that the recent wildfire disasters in communities across the West were unlucky, one-off events, but evidence is accumulating that points to a trend. In a new study, we found a 246 percent increase in the number of homes and structures destroyed by wildfires in the contiguous Western US between

Sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms have predicted that the world will be 1.5 °C hotter than it was before the Industrial Revolution by the early 2030s – another climate change alarm bell to add to the cacophony that’s already being sounded. And that’s baked in, the AI says: it doesn’t matter whether greenhouse gases rise