Climate Change

A radioactive forest in Chernobyl.

The Risks of Fire Around Chernobyl

Radioactive forest litter that has accumulated for the past 28 years could fuel massive blazes in the future

The World Experienced Record-Breaking Weather This August

Last month was the warmest August on record since record-keeping began

The Sahara, the world’s largest non-polar desert, may be at least 7 million years old.

The Sahara Is Millions of Years Older Than Thought

The great desert was born some 7 million years ago, as remnants of a vast sea called Tethys closed up

Blue crabs crawl inside a bushel on a boat off the coast of the Smith Island town of Tylerton, Maryland.

In 100 Years, Maryland's Crab Cakes Might Be Shrimp Cakes

Rising temperatures and a more acidic ocean may spell trouble for the Chesapeake Bay's iconic crabs, oysters and fish

Russia Is Building a New Military Base in the Arctic

The cold war over the Arctic continues

This Map Shows Where All That Carbon Dioxide Is Coming From

Global carbon emissions have an obvious bias

The World's Carbon Sinks May Be Running Out of Room

The Earth's biosphere may be absorbing less carbon than it used to

The Keeling Curve Gets a Much-Needed Boost from Google's Schmidt

The long-running carbon dioxide monitoring program got a $500,000 grant from the Schmidts

Why Environmentalists Should Keep Quiet About Geoengineering

If it seems like there's a technological fix, people lose interest in helping

Lake Louise, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The World Has a Whopping 117 Million Lakes—For Now

A new survey catalogs the world's (steadily disappearing) lakes

More Evidence That Arctic Warming Is Behind the Weak Polar Vortex

Scientists lay out how melting sea ice may destabilize the Arctic atmospheric circulation

Douglas firs in the American West.

Extreme Drought in New Mexico Cost a 650-Year-Old Tree Its Life

The 7-foot-tall douglas fir named Yoda managed to weather many a drought over the centuries, but not this last one

Seen in 2012, an excavator works on a road near an Indonesian oil palm plantation built on disputed lands once home to a rainforest.

The Best and Worst Places to Build More Roads

Road works today are “basically chaos”—but a new global road map could be key to protecting agriculture and nature

Photovoltaic solar panels and wind turbines, San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm, Palm Springs, California, USA.

In the U.S., Solar Energy Has More Than Doubled Since Last Year

Solar voltaic energy is a small, but growing, piece of the American energy pie

The Forest Service Is Running Out of Money to Fight Fires

Firefighting and prevention costs now blaze through 51 percent of the U.S. Forest Service budget, compared to 17 percent in 1995

Methane bubbling up from underneath an Alaskan Lake

Gas, Probably Methane, Is Seeping From 570 Sites off the East Coast

A new study shows that we might find additional sources of methane in places we least expected it

Scientists Are Actually Talking About Building Giant Space Lasers to Control the Weather

This is what happens when you refuse to do things the easy way

California’s exceptional drought has exposed the bottom of Big Bear Lake.

California’s Record Drought Is Making Earth's Surface Rise

Lifting land shows that the U.S. West is now missing some 62 trillion gallons of water

In the public imagination, heat waves remain a B-list natural disaster.

Forecasters Will Soon Be Able to Predict Heat Waves Weeks in Advance

In the public imagination, heat waves remain a B-list natural disaster, but in reality, they are deadly

Warm temperatures are contributing to, among other things, the drought in the western U.S.

ICYMI: July Was Really, Really Hot

This past July was the fourth hottest on record

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