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Environment

Ships along the Mississippi River in New Orleans

Trending Today

Is $30 Million Enough to Save the Mississippi River Basin?

The USDA has a plan to help the troubled watershed

The lush forests in Hawaii may have shaped its language

New Research

How Language Evolved from Climate and Terrain

Try shouting words into the wind, what sounds make it through?

Trending Today

Whisky Grains and Coffee Grounds Could Help Clean up Nuclear Waste

Distilleries could soon be helping save the environment as they bottle up their next batch of brown

Cool Finds

Pink Gumdrops Are Solving a Sticky Crisis in London

The receptacles are part of the world’s first chewing gum recycling program

Setting up sound monitors in Papua New Guinea.

Scientists Are Recording 24-Hour Soundtracks of Rainforests

The bioacoustic data gives Nature Conservancy researchers clues about the health of an ecosystem

Trending Today

Pope Francis: The World “Still Has Time” to Act on Climate Change

The pontiff spoke strongly about environmental action in an address to President Obama and the American people

New Research

Some Ocean Populations Declined by Nearly 50 Percent Between 1970 and 2012

Is there still a chance to stave off a growing crisis beneath the waves?

Smog glows in the sunset in Shanghai, China.

Age of Humans

Air Pollution Kills More Than 3 Million People Every Year

Fine particulates and ozone have been linked to deaths from heart disease, stroke and lung cancer around the globe

New Research

Here’s What Would Happen if All the World’s Fossil Fuels Burned Up at the Same Time

Nice knowing you, Antarctica

New Research

When Seals Molt, They Leave Behind Mercury

Pollution collects at the top of the food chain.

New Research

Earth is Home to 3.02 Trillion Trees

That’s a few more than expected

Animas River flowing through Santa Rita Park a week after the Gold King Mine spill in Colorado

Trending Today

The American West is Full of Old Mines Threatening to Pollute Waterways

Lessons can be learned from the recent spill in the Animas River

Ten years on, some of the scars that Katrina tore into coastal ecosystems persist, while others have healed. NASA's Landsat 8 satellite captured this image of the swamps and marshes that buffer New Orleans in August 2015.

Age of Humans

How Hurricane Katrina Redrew the Gulf Coast

While storms here are nothing new, human influence helped Katrina make Louisiana’s ecological problems worse

Could a New Nanomaterial Reduce Greenhouse Gases?

Berkeley researchers have developed a way to split carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon monoxide using a nano-mesh

New Research

Soon, Red Fireworks Might Not Contain Carcinogens Anymore

Scientists discover alternative to cancer-causing chemicals that give red fireworks their color.

New Research

The Grand Canyon is Full of Mercury

Researchers find high levels of mercury and selenium in plants and animals along the Colorado River

New Research

Over 14,000 Miles of America’s Coastline is Covered in Concrete

14 percent of America’s coastline is coated in concrete — and that could actually be really bad

A mock-up of an electric road

England Is Going to Test Roads That Actually Charge Electric Cars

Highways of the future may have special lanes that recharge the batteries of electric cars as they go

New Research

This Pesticide Doesn’t Kill Spiders, But It Does Mess With Their Heads

Just because a chemical isn’t lethal doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous to other insects

An image of the Italian Alps, snapped in June by the ESA's Sentinel-2, could be used in biodiversity studies.

Cool Finds

Why Satellites Are a Biologist’s Best Friend

From tracking penguins to coral reefs, satellites are changing the way scientists study ecology

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