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Anthropocene

New Mapping Technology Helps Arctic Communities “Keep on Top” of Sea Ice Changes

Buoys are being deployed in the bays of Labrador, Canada, with sensors that track ice thickness, to stop Inuit from breaking through

A map of human impacts around the globe where green areas show areas with the least amount of human influence and red and purple show the areas with the greatest.

Trending Today

Explore the Complexities of Climate Change with These Interactive Maps

Understanding the ins and outs requires some strong visualizations

A dry boat dock sits in Huntington Lake after the water receded, in the High Sierra, California. The state is in its fifth year of drought, and more and more, California is turning to Australia—which endured a ten-year drought earlier this century—for solutions.

Age of Humans

What Can Australia Teach California About Drought?

With the Golden State entering its fifth year of drought, people are looking Down Under for solutions

A crowd sends aloft a balloon representation of Earth at Piazza Venezia during a climate change rally in Rome a day before the COP21 conference in Paris.

Age of Humans

What Will Make the Paris Climate Talks a Success?

This episode of Generation Anthropocene explores the history of the UN climate summit and what’s different at this year’s event

Clouds of smoke pour from a smokestack

Age of Humans

Which Countries Are Most Open to Curbing Greenhouse Gas Emissions?

A new study shows large gaps between concern about climate change and the willingness to act

Thick-billed murres gathering on Coats Island in the Canadian Arctic. New research is finding that these and other birds are bringing ocean pollution back onto land; the birds eat contaminated fish and poop out the chemicals.

Age of Humans

Seabirds Are Dumping Pollution-Laden Poop Back on Land

Chemicals we’ve poured into the ocean are coming back to sting us thanks to seabirds defecating in their onshore colonies

With the recent opening of the Northwest Passage in the Arctic due to melting sea ice barriers, Smithsonian research biologist Seabird McKeon and his team report increasing numbers of animals making the journey into new territories.

Age of Humans

If Atlantic and Pacific Sea Worlds Collide, Does That Spell Catastrophe?

While the Arctic ice melt is opening up east to west shipping lanes, some 75 animals species might also make the journey

These vicuñas are awaiting a haircut at Pulario in Bolivia.

Poaching Upsurge Threatens South America’s Iconic Vicuña

Brought back from the brink of extinction, the llama-like animals have attracted the attention of poachers eager to turn a profit from their prized wool

Yes, we have no bananas: Bananas may be plentiful on store shelves today, but since Americans commercially eat only one variety, our banana supply (like many other foods) is vulnerable to disease or other dangers.

Age of Humans

How Globalization and Climate Change Are Taking Away Our Favorite Foods

In a new book, author Simran Sethi argues that we are facing one of the most radical shifts in food ever.

In the movie The Martian, Matt Damon plays a stranded astronaut who has to grow his own food on the red planet. What he did in the film isn't so far off from how we could grow food in harsh environments on Earth.

Age of Humans

What Growing Potatoes on Mars Means for Earth’s Farmers

Matt Damon made it look easy in the recent Hollywood blockbuster, but Mars and Earth aren’t really all that different after all

Activist Tristram Stuart adds to a collection of fruits during an event in Trafalgar Square designed to highlight food waste by feeding 5,000 people on rejected supermarket food.

Age of Humans

This Is How Much Water You Waste When You Throw Away Food

Tossing an apple is like pouring 25 gallons of water down the drain, and the average American does that 17 times a year

Holiday feasts can be celebratory but also sustainable with a few simple tweaks.

Age of Humans

How to Have the Most Sustainable Thanksgiving Ever

Traditions and turkey don’t have to be incompatible with Earth-friendly practices

It's getting too hot in here

New Research

Could Climate Change Mean Less Sex and Fewer Babies?

Even if it does, perhaps that’s not a bad thing

A bird watcher walks through a dried-up riverbed in the Netherlands in 2007.

Age of Humans

A New “Drought Atlas” Tracks Europe’s Extreme Weather Through History

The data, based on tree rings, fills in details about past events and could help improve climate modeling for the future

Cool Finds

This Incredible Street Art Is Also An Evolution Lesson

In Rome, a giant mural illustrates how life began and evolved

Iceberg, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica

New Research

What is Happening to Antarctica’s Ice Sheets

While parts of Antarctica get icier, others are on the verge of collapse

Samples of cultured meat grown in a laboratory are seen at the University of Maastricht on November 9, 2011. Scientists are cooking up new ways of sustainably feeding the world's hunger for resource-intensive foods like meat products.

Age of Humans

Strange Foods of the Future: The Planet Can Stomach Them, But Can You?

These unusual delicacies could become the staple foods of the future

A fisher in New England empties cod from a drag net.

Age of Humans

Why Smarter Fishing Practices Aren’t Saving Maine Cod From Collapse

Warming waters are undermining the recovery of the already troubled Gulf of Maine fishery

Shoppers flock to a stall to purchase organically grown produce, a rarity on the island of Mauritius. As incomes rise here, so does the demand for organic, but only a handful of farmers have figured out how to balance organic growing with the special demands of a tropical climate.

Age of Humans

Against All Odds, This Indian Ocean Island Is Trying to Go Organic

Mauritius is one of many places suddenly seeking organic produce. But as local farmers are finding, it’s not that easy

Mary Seton Corboy, founder of Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, took a Superfund site 20 years ago and turned it into a thriving urban oasis.

Age of Humans

Inner-City Farmers May Have Toxic Soil on Their Hands

Lead is a particular risk as people try to turn potentially contaminated urban sites into productive and sustainable farms

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