This Is What Half a Year For One of Greenland's Most Imperiled Glaciers Looks Like
Satellites have changed how we see the world. That includes being able to watch climate change overrun everything beautiful in agonizing detail.
Giving Indigenous People Land Rights is a No-Brainer for Fighting Climate Change
Ever since climate change become a widely-recognized problem, international leaders have been looking at forests as one of the best opportunities for greenhouse gas mitigation. One thing that they overlooked, up until very recently, is that forests aren’t just full of trees.
What Filthy Old Birds Can Tell Us About Air Pollution
By analyzing sooty birds housed in museum collections, scientists have been able to track patterns of US air pollution over the last 135 years. As the new study shows, air at the turn of the 20th century was even dirtier than we thought—a finding that will now be used to improve our climate models.
Prozac Makes Crabs Take Stupid, Deadly Risks
Antidepressants are immensely helpful for millions of people across the globe, but when they find their way into the environment and accumulate, their effect can be decidedly not helpful for wildlife. New research has revealed that environmental contamination with one popular antidepressant, Prozac, can have…
The Trump Administration Announces It Will Continue to Screw Over Puerto Rico
On Monday, the Trump administration announced that it would not be extending its waiver of the Jones Act for Puerto Rico, despite urgings from lawmakers and critics who have insisted that the lifting of the rule is crucial for the island’s recovery from Hurricane Maria.
Scott Pruitt Declares an End to 'the War on Coal' and Obama's Clean Power Plan
On Wednesday Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, proudly told an audience of coal miners in Kentucky that the Trump administration would rescind an Obama-era policy designed to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
America's Obsession With Saltwater Aquariums Is Endangering Hawaii's Reef Fish
Rene Umberger has been fighting to shut down Hawaii’s commercial aquarium industry for years. As a former dive instructor, she’s seen with her own eyes the impacts the trade has had on near-shore reefs.
Another Manslaughter Charge Related to Flint's Water Crisis Shows It Isn't Over
More than three years ago, residents in the small city of Flint, Michigan, began to ask: Why? Why was their water was brown? Why was it making them sick? And, most importantly, why wasn’t the city doing anything about it?
Scientists Are Planning a Cruise Into the Breach Left by the Larsen C Iceberg
The Larsen C iceberg may have broken away from Antarctica in July, but the sciencing is just commencing.
Coal Did Something Extremely Weird to Earth's Climate 300 Million Years Ago
Coal, that ancient dead plant stuff responsible for electrifying the world and blackening the lungs of millions, is basically synonymous with global warming these days. But when all that plant corpse concentrate was first locked away in the ground, it took a lot of carbon out of the air. A new climate modeling study…
This Horrible Stick Bug Is No Longer Extinct, Sorry
A tiny island sits almost four hundred miles from the Eastern coast of Australia. Upon that island once lived a large population of giant stick insects—six inch-long “land lobsters” dwelling in trees—the Dryococelus australis. But a hundred years ago, mankind came along, bringing pests, black rats, with them. The bugs…
The Latest Wildfires in a Destructive Season Are Ravaging Northern California [Updating]
A night of wildfire-induced terror in Napa has given way to a morning hellscape.
Bears Ransack Colorado Pizza Parlor in Hunt for Hibernation Carbs
Antonio’s Real New York Pizza in Estes Park, Colorado, got some unexpected customers over the weekend when a mother bear and her two cubs broke in through the drive-thru window and treated themselves to a feast of pizza ingredients.
After Maria, Puerto Rico's Endangered Parrots Face an Uncertain Future
When Hurricane Maria tore across Puerto Rico as a powerful Category 4 last month, it devastated the El Yunque National Forest, toppling trees and stripping canopies of their leaves. But while the rainforest itself is expected to make a full recovery, the future of its famous Puerto Rican parrots (Amazona vittata),…
FEMA Is Garnishing This Man’s Check to Take Back Funds Given to Him After Hurricane Katrina
Imagine being a federal agency that is supposed to provide help and support for victims of natural disasters in their time of need, and when one such victim—a deserving recipient who survived Hurricane Katrina—applies for and receives such aid, you come after him 12 years later and begin garnishing his check to get…
The Radical Plan to Cool Down LA as the World Heats Up
LOS ANGELES — It’s barely 10 a.m. on an August day in Hollywood, and the heat is already becoming oppressive. The temperature’s only in the mid-80s, but in the direct sun it feels hotter—and it’s getting worse by the minute. Part of the reason is the ground. The black asphalt of this side street off Sunset Boulevard…
Fighting Climate Change in a Red State
ATLANTA — “The South” describes a vast, diverse group of people, ideologies and cultures linked, sometimes exclusively, by soupy, sweaty summers. Georgia’s right wing government that recently attempted to pass an anti-LGBT “religious freedom” bill, its Paris Accord exit-supporting senators and Bible Belt location make…
Mice Are Evolving to Survive Life in New York City
Spend enough time in New York City, and there won’t be much that can surprise you. Two-hour lines to get a donut? Yeah, that makes sense. Mummified bat corpses in the alley behind the local church? Of course, that’s where mummified bat corpses belong. Human feces inside a Chinese takeout box on the floor of the subway…
Need a Reminder That All the Glaciers Are Melting? There's a Twitter Bot for That
Climate change and ice, they do not mix. I know it. You know it.
FEMA Deletes Information About Lack of Water and Electricity in Puerto Rico
The FEMA website has been an important tool for keeping Americans up to date on disaster recovery efforts in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. But yesterday, the agency deleted statistics about how many people have access to electricity and clean water on the island. The FEMA website now only displays information…
More from Earther
- House Republicans and the Trump Administration Are Waging a War on Wildlife
- A Disturbing Amount of the World's Honey Is Laced With Insecticides
- Indigenous Activists Win a Major Victory as Two Canadian Pipeline Projects Are Canceled
- Elon Musk Wants to Help Puerto Rico Rebuild Its Grid Using Tesla Batteries [Updated]
