Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Climate Change

Polar bears just don’t do it for us anymore.

New Research

For the 4th Time Since 1997, We All Just Lived Through the Hottest Year Ever Recorded

2014 beats out previous record holders even without El Niño’s warming powers

To reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the world would need to leave some 80 percent of current coal reserves in the ground, according to a new study.

Anthropocene

To Meet Global Warming Targets, Leave Fuels In the Ground

Hefty percentages of fossil fuels need to remain untapped to curtail the rising global temperature

Almonds on a tree, ready for harvest in California

Cool Finds

Watch How Farm Machines Shake Down Almond Trees

California grows 80 percent of the world’s almonds, for now

A summer thunderstorm in Utah

New Research

Cloud Seeding Study Suggests We Could Boost Rain And Snow by 15 Percent

After comparing the effect of cloud seeding generators on snowfall in two nearby mountain ranges, researchers think a program might help

Trending Today

Big News Stories of 2014 That Aren’t Going Away

We just have so much to look forward to

New Research

Canada’s Outdoor Ice Skating Rinks’ Days Are Numbered Thanks to Climate Change

Skating rinks are already open for fewer days in the year than they were just a decade ago

After the devastating 2011 tsunami, the Japanese government spent billions of zen to build this sea wall along the Sendai Coastline. It's almost 20 miles long.

In an Era of Superstorms, This Exhibit Captures Our Shifting Relationship with the Earth’s Rising Seas

“Sink or Swim” shows how we’re learning to be smarter and more resilient in our response to increasingly unpredictable oceans and rivers

A surfer rides large waves at Baker Beach in San Francisco during one of the largest storms to hit Northern California in the last five years.

New Research

Get Set For Frequent Flooding In Coastal U.S. Cities

Sea level rise is increasing the odds of nuisance flooding

Windswept trees seem to loom over a beach on the remote island of Tarawa in Kiribati. Scientists have found that coral reefs near Tarawa record changes in Pacific trade winds.

Corals Show How Pacific Trade Winds Guide Global Temperatures

The world has been in a global warming hiatus, but that will change when the winds once again weaken

The Claudio Aqueduct was built in the 1st century along the Appian Way in Rome.

Anthropocene

Ancient Roman Water Networks Made the Empire Vulnerable

A model of ancient water movement shows how trade practices might affect today’s urban centers as the climate changes

New Research

Even A/C Can’t Keep Our Economies From Slacking Off on Hot Days

As global warming turns up the temperature on the planet, it’s going to be tougher to get anything done

New Research

The Cutest Climate Change Culprits: Arctic Ground Squirrels

By digging burrows in permafrost, Arctic ground squirrels help destabilize the vast stores of carbon in the soil

Singer and plastic-clothing designer Pharrell Williams at the "Raw For The Oceans" event at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The Top 12 Ocean Stories That Made Waves in 2014

The seas served up some compelling headlines this year, from celebrity fashion to solving the mystery of the melting starfish

A fossilized leaf from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum sits in the Wyoming snow.

Anthropocene

Ancient Earth Warmed Dramatically After a One-Two Carbon Punch

A period of intense warming 55 million years ago is an even better case study for modern climate change than previously suspected

G. Wayne Clough

Anthropocene

Why Engineering Will Be Vital in a Changing Climate

Smithsonian Secretary G. Wayne Clough offers personal insights on the realities of climate change and the best ways for society to adapt

Port Fourchon, a seaport and hub for the petroleum industry on the marshy coast south of New Orleans

Trending Today

The Plan to Save Louisiana’s Coast Is a ‘Moon Shot’

The plan involves moving silt from upstream down into the delta—but no one knows if there’s actually enough

New Research

Typhoons Saved 13th Century Japan From Invasion

Geologic evidence supports historic accounts of the great “Kamikaze” of 1274 and 1281

New Research

California’s Ongoing Drought Is Its Worst in 1,200 Years

Tree ring records unveil the severity of California’s drought

The Shape of Things to Come, Antarctic Sound, February 2010: "As we sailed with the land to our backs, I saw this bright, jagged iceberg with a dark-blue sea," writes Seaman.

Art Meets Science

These Photos Capture a Decade of Change at Earth’s Poles

From courting penguins to moody icebergs, photojournalist Camille Seaman shares her personal journey through polar habitats

A bleached coral reef

New Research

Listen to the Sounds of a Dying Coral Reef

Healthy coral reefs produce a medley of sounds that ocean creatures use as homing beacons

Page 72 of 98