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Climate Change

Baskets of local fruit for sale in Niagara, Ontario. Peaches are more frequently being grown in cold-weather climates like Canada as climate change affects the viability of crops.

Canadian Peaches and California Coffee: How Farmers Are Being Forced to Innovate in the Face of Climate Change

As the climate changes and global temperatures rise, farmers are having to change cultivation techniques and sometimes even crops.

Mateo-Vega (derecha) muestra a los compañeros Emberá y Kuna cómo tomar medidas forestales. De izquierda a derecha, los técnicos indígenas Edgar Gariboldo, Chich Chamarro, Baurdino López, Evelio Jiménez, Alexis Solís. (Sean Mattson / Smithsonian)

Future of Conservation

Cómo Los Científicos y Grupos Indígenas Pueden Aliarse Para Proteger Los Bosques y el Clima

One concern about wind turbines is that they are noisy, but the Department of Energy notes that at a distance of 750 feet, they make about as much noise as a household fridge.

Two Myths and One Truth About Wind Turbines

From the cost of turbines to one U.S. senator’s suggestion that “wind is a finite resource”

Icy conditions kept BAYSYS ships from making their way to the research site.

Trending Today

Climate Change Cuts Climate Change Study Short

Ironic? Yes. But it could be a new reality for scientists

Trending Today

Art Installation Recreates the Smell of Cities Around the World

The Pollution Pod project emphasizes the unequal air quality divide between rich and poor cities

Mad Max: Fury Road offers a dystopian look at the future.

Art Meets Science

What Happens to Fiction When Our Worst Climate Nightmares Start Coming True?

Movies, books and poetry have made predictions about a future that could be rapidly approaching

Once rare floods could afflict cities like San Diego more often in the future, a new study finds.

New Research

Catastrophic Coastal Floods Could Become Much More Likely

A new study predicts a median 40-fold increase in flood frequency by 2050

The floating solar power station in Anhui province

Trending Today

China Turns On the World’s Largest Floating Solar Farm

Floating on a lake over a collapsed coal mine, the power station in Anhui province can produce 40 megawatts of energy

A field of methane craters on the floor of the Barents Sea

New Research

Ancient Methane Explosions Rocked the Arctic Ocean at the End of the Last Ice Age

As retreating ice relieved seafloor pressures, trapped methane burst through to the water column, study says

"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

Hint: We’re not number one, but we’re close

The Direct Air Capture carbon collecting plant in Hinwil, Switzerland

Trending Today

First Commercial Carbon-Capture Plant Goes Online

The plant will collect 900 tons of carbon a year, piping it into a nearby greenhouse to boost vegetable growth

Aspens are one of the American tree species moving northwest.

New Research

American Trees are Shifting West

For 86 common species, northwest seems to be best. But why?

World War I: 100 Years Later

How World War I Changed Weather Forecasting for Good

Prior to the Great War, weather forecasters had never considered using mathematical modeling

New Research

How Glaciers Gave Us the Adorable, Handstanding Spotted Skunk

DNA tests suggest ancient changes in climate shaped the creatures’ evolution

Mateo-Vega (right) shows Emberá and Kuna colleagues how to take forest measurements. From left to right, indigenous technicians Edgar Garibaldo, Chicho Chamorro, Baurdino Lopez, Evelio Jiménez, Alexis Solís.

Future of Conservation

How Scientists And Indigenous Groups Can Team Up to Protect Forests and Climate

A collaboration between Smithsonian researchers and the Emberá people of Panama aims to rewrite a fraught narrative

As many as 4,000 snow machines could soon preserve the ice on this Swiss glacier.

Trending Today

Can Snow Machines Save Swiss Glaciers?

As many as 4,000 could be deployed to insulate ice on Morteratsch

Unlikely savior: The remarkable properties of spaghnum moss help preserve long-dead bodies, sequester carbon and even heal wounds.

World War I: 100 Years Later

How Humble Moss Healed the Wounds of Thousands in World War I

The same extraordinary properties that make this plant an “ecosystem engineer” also helped save human lives

Roadmap is a new idea whose aim is to facilitate action on climate change without any of the usual suspects—governments, countries, international bodies, negotiating parties.

Using a New Roadmap to Democratize Climate Change

A new tool aims to bypass governments and put the power of climate action in the people’s hands

A surfer at Huntington Beach in Southern California

New Research

California May Lose Popular Surfing Spots to Rising Seas

A changing climate may make iconic breaks disappear

A sea otter floats in Kachemak Bay, Alaska.

Future of Conservation

The Remarkable Return of Sea Otters to Glacier Bay

Rarely do apex predators recover from human oppression. These otters are an exception

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