Special Report

Age of Humans

© 237/Martin Barraud/Ocean/Corbis

Children at the Free School Under the Bridge, an outdoor, donation-supported school under a highway overpass, learn about not just reading and math, but climate change and the ozone layer.

How India Is Teaching 300 Million Kids to Be Environmentalists

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

What Is Wind?

The world as we knew it.

How Geography Shaped Societies, From Neanderthals to iPhones

See How Humans Have Reshaped the Globe With This Interactive Atlas

Paris has spread along the banks of the Seine since 1900.

Make Cities Explode in Size With These Interactive Maps

Travel Through Deep Time With This Interactive Earth

Featured story

Many boundaries between geologic eras are marked by physical golden spikes. This one, in South Australia, marks the end of the Ediacaran period, 635 million years ago.

Where in the World is the Anthropocene?

Some geologists believe we’ve entered a new era. Now they have to search for the rocks that prove it

Air

A man in Seattle wears a mask as wildfire smoke descends on the city in September of 2020.

Four Ways to Protect Yourself From Harmful Air Pollution Caused by Wildfires

A large dust storm, or haboob, sweeps across downtown Phoenix on July 21, 2012.

How Climate Changed-Fueled “Mega Droughts” Could Harm Human Health

Ploy Pattanun Achakulwisut, Loretta Mickley and Susan Anenberg, The Conversation

Smog and other types of pollution were linked to nine million deaths in 2015 by a new report

One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution

"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," President Trump said during his announcement that the United States would be leaving the Paris agreement. Pictured: a steel mill in the Monongahela Valley of East Pittsburgh in the early 1970's.

How America Stacks Up When It Comes to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Emissions from steel production in eastern China are fertilizing nearby oceans.

Human Pollution May Be Fertilizing The Oceans. That’s Not a Good Thing

Health

Smog and other types of pollution were linked to nine million deaths in 2015 by a new report

One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution

Yes, Sperm Counts Have Been Steadily Declining—But Don’t Freeze Your Sperm Yet

Video: Why Should Humans Care About Preserving the Diversity of Life on Earth?

Smithsonian Digital Studio

Water

Even at thresholds of sodium chloride that were considered safe at 230 milligrams of chloride per liter of water in the U.S. to 120 milligrams of chloride per liter in Canada, researchers found a significant loss of zooplankton populations an increase in algae.

Road Salt Pollution Levels Deemed Safe in U.S. and Canada May Not Protect Freshwater Ecosystems Enough

Elizabeth Gamillo

A brown trout caught in Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge

Meth Pollution in Waterways Turns Trout Into Addicts

Plastic Whale organizes boat tours along Amsterdam's canals to collect garbage--in particular plastic--which it then recycles and uses the repurposed material to build boats.

Fishing for Plastic Is the Latest Way to Clean Up Amsterdam’s Canals

Jennifer Nalewicki

Residents queue to fill containers with water from a source of natural spring water in Cape Town, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018.

What's Behind Cape Town's Water Woes?

Smog and other types of pollution were linked to nine million deaths in 2015 by a new report

One in Six Global Deaths Linked to Pollution

Culture

The Algodón River flows through a forest of the Amazon Basin in the remote northeastern corner of Peru. Scientists collected and analyzed a series of ten roughly 3-foot-long soil cores from three sites, each located at least a half-mile away from river courses and floodplains.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

In a Remote Amazon Region, Study Shows Indigenous Peoples Have Practiced Forest Conservation for Millennia

While looters discard bones, they are invaluable to archaeologists’ research.

As Mongolia Melts, Looters Close In On Priceless Artifacts

Julia Kate Clark, The Conversation

English Bulldogs illustrate the dramatic turn dog evolution has taken at the hands of humans.

The Evolution of Petface

This celestial chart from 1687 is one of many illustrations from books, charts, and maps showing artists’ imaginings of polar bears.

How Polar Bears Became the Dragons of the North

Michael Engelhard, Hakai Magazine

From the Batpod to the Batcomputer, the Caped Crusader's gadgets use up a whole lot of energy and spew a whole lot of carbon. But when it comes to carbon footprints, Gotham's techiest hero has nothing on some of pop culture's other saviors.

Which of Your Favorite Superheroes Is Destroying the Earth?

Smithsonianmag.com

Food

The bear was only a few years old and had become comfortable around humans.

A Young Black Bear Was Put Down After Humans Fed It, Took Selfies

Since commercial harvesting of sea cucumbers began in British Columbia, indigenous people have grown more worried about the long-term sustainability of catching them.

Is the Mysterious Sea Cucumber Slipping Out of Our Grasp?

Lorraine Boissoneault

Humans overwhelmingly rely on only a few crops like wheat, making our food supplies vulnerable to climate change

Just a Few Species Make Up Most of Earth's Food Supply. And That's a Problem

Americans have started feeding their pets an abundance of high-quality meats, suitable for human consumption. But fido doesn't need filet mignon.

America's Fancy Pet Food Addiction Is a Big Problem for the Environment

Cookie Dough was among 10 flavors found to contain low levels of glyphosate

Trace Amounts of Pesticide Found in Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream

Shelter

Albina Yard, a 16,000-square-foot office building in Portland, uses wood, not steel and concrete, as its structural support.

Move Over, Steel: The High Rises of Tomorrow Are ‘Plyscrapers’

Michelle Z. Donahue

Tokyo is the world's largest city...for now.

Five Things to Know About Megacities

Cubicles: Not just mind-numbing, but unhealthy too?

How Climate Change Could Make Office Work Even Unhealthier

Joshua Rapp Learn

Germany, Hamburg, Speichrstadt and Hafencity district

Coastal Cities Need to Radically Rethink How They Deal With Rising Waters

Zacharia Muinde of Map Kibera Trust shows teachers and students their school's page on Open Schools Kenya, a mapping project that helps residents find information on local schools.

DIY Cartographers Are Putting Slums on the Literal Map

Economics

Municipal solid waste (aka garbage) being burned in an incinerator; this incinerator can handle 17 tons of trash an hour.

Is Sustainable Trash-Burning a Load of Rubbish?

Learning about bugs at Cuyahoga Valley National Park, Ohio.

Americans Think National Parks Are Worth Way More Than We Spend On Them

Linda J. Bilmes and John Loomis

A male greater sage-grouse dances for a female.

New Schemes Pay You to Save Species—But Will They Work?

Nature

The fuzz of the fingernail-sized rosy maple moth may remind you of a teddy bear.

These Moths Are So Gorgeous They 'Put Butterflies to Shame'

Shi En Kim; Photographs by Carla Rhodes

The Chilean crocus, "Tecophilaea cyanocrocus," was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in 2001. It's been considered "critically endangered" under ICUN guidelines ever since.

Plant Species Have Been Disappearing 500 Times Faster Than Normal, Thanks to Humans

Maddie Burakoff

Recent research found that fully one third of humanity can't see the Milky Way because of light pollution

Is Light Pollution Really Pollution?

Torrance Coste of the Wilderness Committee illustrates the immensity of the missing Carmanah cedar in 2012.

How Thousand-Year-Old Trees Became the New Ivory

Lyndsie Bourgon

Study Shows 84% of Wildfires Caused by Humans

Latest Anthropocene Stories

Sassafras leaves begin to grow. Both 19th-century Ohio farmer Thomas Mikesell and current Ohio State University ecologist Kellen Calinger-Yoak recorded important details about the plant.

What a 19th-Century Farmer’s Forgotten Notes Reveal About Growing Seasons

A tiger shark swims in the Bahamas. Over the past several decades, the predators ventured farther north in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean.

Some Tiger Sharks Are Migrating Farther North Due to Climate Change

A researcher holds a golden-crowned spadebill in Brazil. Seventy-seven rainforest bird species in the country showed a decrease in body weight over the last four decades.

Climate Change Is Transforming the Bodies of Amazonian Birds

DNA from the skin of this mummified sheep leg allowed researchers to study sheep husbandry practices in ancient Iran.

Researchers Recover DNA From 1,600-Year-Old, Naturally Mummified Sheep Leg

Oil Spill #10, Oil Slick at Rip Tide, Gulf of Mexico, June 24, 2010 (detail) by Edward Burtynsky, 2010

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

The Sad Truths Behind These Unsettling Works of Art

Landscapes have been managed by humans for thousands of years – some sustainably, others less so. The Martu people of Australia burn the grasses in continent’s Western Desert. The practice yields food, but also increases biodiversity in the area.

AT THE SMITHSONIAN

New Study Pushes Origins of Human-Driven Global Change Back Thousands of Years

Concrete, a building block of our cities and towns, accounted for the most mass, followed by steel, gravel, brick and asphalt.

Human-Made Materials Now Weigh More Than All Life on Earth Combined

A visual representation of global methane from January 26, 2018. Red areas indicate higher concentrations of methane swirling in the atmosphere.

World Methane Emissions Hit New High

The Meghalayan Age’s “timestamp” is an isotopic shift found in a single stalagmite growing from the floor of the Mawmluh Cave in Meghalaya, India

Welcome to the Meghalayan Age, the Latest Stage in Earth’s 4.54-Billion-Year History

You'd expect to see a raccoon snuffling around at midnight. A sun bear, not so much.

Fear of Humans Is Forcing Daytime Animals Into Night Mode

Joshua Rapp Learn

Inventions for Good

Researchers found that tadpole embryos were better able to fight off infection when their cells' natural electrical charge was manipulated.

Tweaking the Tiny Electrical Charges Inside Cells Can Fight Infection

Albina Yard, a 16,000-square-foot office building in Portland, uses wood, not steel and concrete, as its structural support.

Move Over, Steel: The High Rises of Tomorrow Are ‘Plyscrapers’

Michelle Z. Donahue

The casein film can either be used as wrappers, like this, or it can be sprayed onto food.

Here's a Food Wrapper You Can Eat