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Climate Change

Even common backyard birds like house finches are disappearing.

North American Bird Losses Are Accelerating. New Research Suggests Fertilizers and Pesticides May Be to Blame

Scientists found the severest changes in decline rates in places that include hallmarks of high-intensity agriculture

The biggest discrepancies were in Southeast Asia.

Sea Levels Might Be Higher Than We Thought, Putting Millions of People in the Path of Coastal Flooding Sooner Than Expected

A lot of past research has used flawed methodology to estimate current coastal water levels, according to a new study

Manuel Díaz Cárdenas harvests the tender tips of his Salicornia plants.

As the Planet Warms, a Humble Sea Bean Is Proving to Be a Promising Superfood

Known as samphire, sea beans, glasswort or pickleweed, Salicornia thrives in high-saline environments, like coastal marshes, and has a lot of nutritional and medicinal properties

A blue morpho butterfly, native to the tropical forests of Central and South America

Most Insect Species Call the Tropics Home. But Climate Change Is Pushing Many of the Critters There to Their Heat Limits

Insects in the lowlands will have an especially hard time with rising temperatures, a new study suggests

Screenshot from the footage of a sleeper shark seen in Antarctica's waters

See the First Known Footage of an Elusive Southern Sleeper Shark Swimming in Antarctica’s Near-Freezing Waters

It might be the southernmost encounter with a shark ever documented

Geologist Molly Patterson holds part of the sediment core

Researchers Retrieve the Deepest-Ever Rock Core From Beneath Antarctica’s Ice. It Holds Clues About the Earth’s Past—and Future

The 748-foot-long sediment core contains a record of roughly the past 23 million years, including periods when the planet’s surface temperature was hotter than it is today

The Ennedi Natural and Cultural Reserve, in eastern Chad, encompasses 19,300 square miles of a vast sandstone plateau.

The Sahara Desert Hasn’t Always Been a Dry, Desolate Landscape. Some Scientists See Signs It May Be Greening Again

Petroglyphs on sandstone at a national park in Chad bear witness to wildlife that once roamed the area before the continent’s water largely receded 6,000 years ago. Could it return?

Couples kissed beneath the arch for luck, according to local legend.

Couples Have Been Kissing Under the Lovers’ Arch in Italy for Years. On Valentine’s Day, It Collapsed Into the Sea

The iconic rock formation crumbled after days of raging storms. Local officials are calling for new initiatives to help slow coastal erosion in the region

An artistic representation of T. heberti snacking on some greens.

Cool Finds

A Football-Size Creature That Lived 307 Million Years Ago May Have Been One of the First Land Vertebrates to Eat Plants

“Hebert’s tyrant digger” had teeth built for grinding tough veggies, a new study suggests

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There's More to That

The Tragedy of the Alps’ Disappearing Glaciers for Those Who Live, Visit and Ski There

Warming temperatures are wreaking havoc at elevation, upending the Winter Olympics and the tourism industry and imperiling communities

Wetlands like South Sudan's Sudd swamp saw more rainfall in 2020 due to the La Niña climate event, which caused more methane to enter the atmosphere.

When Human Activity Dropped During Covid-19, Methane Levels Surprisingly Spiked. Now, a Study Points to Two Reasons Why

In a paradox of air pollution, a decrease in man-made pollutants led to more methane in our atmosphere. And natural wetlands released more of the planet-warming gas at the same time

The new map revealed tens of thousands of previously undiscovered landforms.

What’s Buried Beneath Antarctica’s Ice? A New Map Unveils the Continent’s Hidden Landscape Like Never Before

A better understanding of the bedrock can help researchers calculate how quickly the continent’s melting glaciers might affect sea-level rise

A polar bear cub walks along the ice in Svalbard, Norway.

See 24 Astounding Images From the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest—and Vote for Your Favorite

The public will choose the winner of the People’s Choice award in a vote that runs from February 4 to March 18

A juvenile harbor seal lies on a beach in the Netherlands.

Seals Are Seemingly Vanishing Off the Dutch Coast. These Scientists Are Trying to Get to the Bottom of the Mysterious Disappearances

Recent counts of the Wadden Sea’s adult harbor seal population have revealed a surprising trend of decline, prompting a consortium of researchers to investigate whether the animals are dying off, relocating or experiencing something else altogether

For the time being, the bears are adapting to warming temperatures and a changing habitat

Some Polar Bears Have Been Getting Chunkier—Despite Losing Their Main Hunting Grounds to Climate Change

The fuzzy white predators of Svalbard, Norway, have been getting fatter over the past two decades, possibly by changing their diets and hunting strategies, a new study suggests

A combination of warm weather, torrential rain and a recent dry spell probably contributed to the low snowpack.

Snow Drought Hits the Western United States, Worrying Experts About the Region’s Water Supply

Snow melt from the mountains provides up to 75 percent of the West’s yearly water

Joshua trees rely on a single species—the yucca moth—to pollinate their flowers.

The American Southwest’s Iconic Joshua Trees Are Blooming Early—and Scientists Want Your Help to Figure Out Why

The spiky desert succulents typically blossom beginning in late February. But this season, many started growing flowers up to four months early

A gentoo penguin peers up from its colony’s nesting grounds on Booth Island, in the Antarctic Peninsula. The species, an adaptable forager that can switch prey when krill are scarce, has expanded into parts of the Antarctic Peninsula that were once too icy to inhabit.

The Penguins That Thrive—and the Ones Left Behind—as Antarctica Warms

A new decade-long study tracked 37 penguin colonies and found that the birds are breeding earlier. The shift marks one way among many that climate change is transforming life at the bottom of the world

More than 1.8 billion people lived under drought conditions in 2022 and 2023, according to a report from the United Nations.

United Nations Declares That the World Has Entered an Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’

We’re living beyond our hydrological means and need to focus on long-term recovery, according to a new report

The "Tumat puppies" were discovered with their fur, skin and stomach contents still intact.

Contents of a Wolf Pup’s Stomach From 14,400 Years Ago Are Teaching Researchers About the Lives of the Last Woolly Rhinos

Analysis of woolly rhinoceros DNA recovered from the permafrost-preserved wolf further hints that the Ice Age beasts went extinct because of a sudden shift in the climate

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