Brian Kahn, Author at Gizmodo

Amy Coney Barrett’s Climate Denial and Anti-Abortion Views Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

Much of the focus on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination hearing for the Supreme Court has rightly been focused on her virulently anti-abortion stance and whether she would overturn Roe v. Wade. But over Tuesday and Wednesday, a weird climate thread also emerged in her hearing, namely whether she accepted climate science. Barrett, as she has…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 15 '20

The ‘Severe Ramifications’ of Climate Change on the Great Barrier Reef Are Clearer Than Ever

Whether its humanity or coral, you need a healthy, diverse population to survive. Pick off the old and you lose wisdom and protection. Pick off the young, and it’s adios to the next generation. When it comes to the Great Barrier Reef, climate change is wiping out everything indiscriminately. In a shocking new study published…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 14 '20

Climate Change Is the Internet’s Worst Enemy

The internet is causing its own demise. Every line of code requires electricity to run, and much of that electricity comes from dirty fossil fuels. And every belch of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power plants brings the internet one step closer to ruin. The rise of smartphones puts more information at our fingertips than…

Climate Change Brian Kahn & Alex Cranz Oct 14 '20

Apple Is Cutting Out an Obvious Source of E-Waste

It’s Apple Day, and for once, I don’t have to take on the usual role of climate journalists completely raining on the parade of people hypebeasting the new iPhone. I mean, look, of course you should run your old iPhone into the ground instead of buying a new one if you value a habitable planet…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 13 '20

The Atlantic Ocean Hasn’t Been This Hot in at Least 2,900 Years

More than 20 years after intoning, “The water’s getting warm, so you might as well swim,” Smash Mouth’s “All Star” continues to be prophetic. Case in point: A new study finds that the Atlantic Ocean just had its hottest decade in at least 2,900 years. Someone award Smash Mouth a PhD and calculate the h-index…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 12 '20

An AI Analysis of 500,000 Studies Shows How We Can End World Hunger

Ending hunger is one of the top priorities of the United Nations this decade. Yet the world appears to be backsliding, with an uptick of 60 million people experiencing hunger in the last five years to an estimated 690 million worldwide. To help turn this trend around, a team of 70 researchers published a landmark…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 12 '20

A Chemist Running on ‘I Believe in Science’ Wants to Take Down a Trump-Loving Republican on Long Island

That “I believe in science” and “I believe in using facts and evidence to solve problems” are rallying cries for a political campaign says a lot about 2020. Yet that’s the pitch of Nancy Goroff, a chemist at Stony Brook University who is the Democratic nominee taking on Rep. Lee Zeldin in a Long Island…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 9 '20

A Caterpillar With Vomit-Inducing Poison Fur Is Taking Over Virginia

The West Coast is dealing with murder hornets entering a “slaughter phase.” Now the East Coast is getting in on the bad bug action, too, as furry poisonous caterpillars that can make people vomit and feel like they’re going into shock spread across Virginia. More like United States of Ahhh Get These Horror Show Bugs…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 9 '20

Democrats Need to Unlearn Everything They Think They Know About Climate Change

For the second debate in a row, we were treated to an entire section on climate change. Well, “treat” might be too strong. It was great to see climate appear so early. It was not great to see how the questions were framed and how poor the answers were. As with President Donald Trump’s first…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 8 '20

The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress

Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez featured Taco Mix, objectively the best taco spot in Spanish Harlem, on her Instagram. I tell you this to a) convince you to go there if you are ever in the area, and b) because it speaks to the value of representatives who are normal people. AOC’s well-documented rise…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 7 '20

I Miss When It Was Quiet

My weekend was like most other weekends in the pandemic era. I went for a walk in the park with my wife, briefly saw some friends outdoors and socially distanced, made some mac and cheese, and mainly chilled. But for all the trappings of normalcy (or what goes for normalcy these days), there was something distinctly…

Politics Brian Kahn Oct 7 '20

The Internet Is Broken, and ISPs Are to Blame

Welcome to the big day: The launch of System Reboot, Gizmodo’s new podcast on how to repair a broken world. There’s no better place to start our mission to fix the world than the internet. We rely on the tubes and wires more than ever due to the pandemic that has us working from home,…

Tech News Brian Kahn & Alex Cranz Oct 7 '20

Not Again

There was one brief, beautiful week where Atlantic hurricane season let up after a staggering run of storms, and we could relax. That break is, unfortunately, over. Hurricane Delta is shaping up to be an incredibly dangerous storm as it picks up steam in the Caribbean. At this time 24 hours ago, Delta had just…

Earth Science Brian Kahn Oct 6 '20

California Has Its First ‘Gigafire’ in Modern History

In August, researchers warned we would have to add “gigafire” to the lexicon to describe wildfires in California. Now, it’s become a part of the history books. On Monday, the August Complex in Northern California surpassed 1 million acres burned, the threshold for a gigafire. It makes the first gigafire in modern history for California,…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 5 '20

Tasmanian Devils Are Back in Australia for the First Time in 3,000 Years

On Monday, wildlife managers announced that they had brought Tasmanian devils back into the (relative) wilds of the Australian mainland, the first time these creatures will be living there in 3,000 years. It’s an attempt at a two-for-one bank shot to save the ferocious marsupials as well as creatures under assault from feral cats. The…

Earther Brian Kahn Oct 5 '20

This Is What Happens When Science and Compassion Become Disposable

These days, the world is full of teachable moments. The latest is President Donald Trump announcing he tested positive for covid-19 in a late night tweet. There will be breathless coverage in the coming days about Trump’s health and which officials and oligarchs he may have passed the virus to, but we shouldn’t lose sight…

Climate Change Brian Kahn Oct 2 '20

Coal Baron Who Fought to Weaken Black Lung Protections Files for Black Lung Benefits

Bob Murray is many things. The last coal baron. A huge Trump supporter. A climate denier. A big deregulation fan. And now, apparently, an applicant for federal black lung benefits. Ohio Valley ReSource, a cooperative of local journalism outlets in the heart of coal country, reported and confirmed that Murray applied for the benefits managed…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn Oct 1 '20

Greenland Faces a Century of Unprecedented Ice Loss

Hey, we haven’t checked in on the Greenland in awhile, let’s see what’s hap… Oh. Oh no. New research published on Wednesday in Nature shows the Greenland ice sheet is already pushing the boundaries of mass loss seen over the past 12,000 years. Even under the best-case climate scenario, where humanity rapidly draws down emissions…

Earther Brian Kahn Sep 30 '20

The End of Climate Change Denial Is the Start of Something Much Worse

Last night’s presidential debate was an abomination by just about any standard. The sitting president told white supremacists to “stand by,” took no responsibility for the deaths of more than 200,000 Americans killed by covid-19, refused to back a peaceful transfer of power, and generally lied with reckless abandon while moderator Chris Wallace essentially took…

Earther Brian Kahn Sep 30 '20

The Oceans Are Turning Into a Layer Cake

The oceans are facing a host of maladies, from acidification to sea level rise. Turning them into a ginormous liquid layer cake may sound comparatively benign (and delicious). But while Earther is decidedly pro-cake, this is in fact a bad situation. New research published in Nature Climate Change on Monday shows that oceans are stratifying…

Earther Brian Kahn Sep 28 '20

Brian Kahn

Amy Coney Barrett’s Climate Denial and Anti-Abortion Views Are Two Sides of the Same Coin

The ‘Severe Ramifications’ of Climate Change on the Great Barrier Reef Are Clearer Than Ever

Climate Change Is the Internet’s Worst Enemy

Apple Is Cutting Out an Obvious Source of E-Waste

The Atlantic Ocean Hasn’t Been This Hot in at Least 2,900 Years

An AI Analysis of 500,000 Studies Shows How We Can End World Hunger

A Chemist Running on ‘I Believe in Science’ Wants to Take Down a Trump-Loving Republican on Long Island

A Caterpillar With Vomit-Inducing Poison Fur Is Taking Over Virginia

Democrats Need to Unlearn Everything They Think They Know About Climate Change

The Key to Passing Good Climate Policy Is Having Real People in Congress

I Miss When It Was Quiet

The Internet Is Broken, and ISPs Are to Blame

Not Again

California Has Its First ‘Gigafire’ in Modern History

Tasmanian Devils Are Back in Australia for the First Time in 3,000 Years

This Is What Happens When Science and Compassion Become Disposable

Coal Baron Who Fought to Weaken Black Lung Protections Files for Black Lung Benefits

Greenland Faces a Century of Unprecedented Ice Loss

The End of Climate Change Denial Is the Start of Something Much Worse

The Oceans Are Turning Into a Layer Cake

The ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ Reboot Snags an Exciting Director

Meta Plans to Turn Its Employees’ Clicks and Keystrokes into AI Training Data

Physicists Now Understand Why a Weird Quantum Gas Refuses to Heat Up

Watch the Lego ‘Project Hail Mary’ Set (Almost) Go to Space

Shark Glam Ceramic Multi-Styler Is Nearly Half the Price of Dyson Airwrap at an All-Time Low on Amazon

OpenAI Unveils New Image Generator to Usher in an AI Slop ‘Renaissance’

Xbox Game Pass Now Costs Less, but That Doesn’t Mean It’s a Good Deal

The Trailer for ‘Affection’ Teases a Medical Mystery From Hell

So How Did Artemis 2’s Heat Shield Hold Up? The First Results Are In

Watch a Guy Fabricate Functioning Micron-Scale RAM Cells in His Garden Shed

I’ve Tested a Lot of Bad Smart Glasses and These Are the Worst Yet

Roborock’s Qrevo Curv 2 Flow Is the Ultimate Robot Mop—If You Don’t Have Corners or Walls

Alienware’s $350 QD-OLED Gaming Monitor Nixes Everything for a Pretty Screen

Sony Inzone H6 Air Review: A Perfect Case for Open-Back Gaming Headsets

Anker’s EufyMake E1 Finally Brings Printers Out of the Dark Ages

The Soundboks Mix Is Going to Make You the Most Popular Guy at the Park

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go