Brian Kahn, Author at Gizmodo

Antarctic Researchers Are Having More Solstice Fun Than You

It’s the solstice, and what better way to celebrate than going to a party. Perhaps there’ll be a little wine, some cheese, a lovely platter of crudites. Maybe it’ll be on a roof or in a backyard. Delightful! I can assure that however you spend the solstice, though, it will be lame in comparison to…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

First Manta Ray Nursery Ever Discovered Shows Marine Protected Areas Matter

Manta rays are among the most charismatic undersea megafauna, but there’s still a lot we don’t know these flat, ginormous sea-dogs. Now, in trying to understand how their populations are connected in the Gulf of Mexico, scientists have made a wild discovery. In Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, which sits about 110 miles southeast…

Conservation Brian Kahn

China’s Plastic Waste Ban Will Create a Huge Issue For the World

For years, China has been the world’s plastic waste dump. Single use water bottles, yogurt cups, hummus containers, and countless other sundries we take for granted were shipped from developed countries to China for recycling. But a 2017 ban on the import of non-industrial waste is changing all that. Now, plastic once bound for Chinese…

Conservation Brian Kahn

Climate Change Is Out, Drilling Is in With Trump’s New Ocean Policy

In the wake of the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history, President Obama announced an executive order designed to help safeguard the oceans. Naturally, President Trump has decided to dismantle it and replace it with a policy touting the benefits of offshore drilling. In an executive order released Tuesday, Trump shifts the focus of…

Conservation Brian Kahn

You Need These Award-Winning Nature Photos Right Now

Amid the toxic wasteland that is daily life, it’s important to step back and remember our world is still a place of wonder. And so I implore you to take a moment and do that with the winners of the Nature Conservancy’s annual photo contest. This year’s contest attracted a record-breaking 57,489 photographs taken by…

Conservation Brian Kahn

Trump’s Tent City in the Desert Could Be a Public Health Disaster

The Trump administration policy of separating children from their parents at the border is a grotesque horror show. Children are being kept in cages. And as of this weekend, they’re being sent to a tent city in the blistering Texas heat, a move that raises the risk of serious health issues. The first tent city…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

Mexico’s Game-Winning Goal Against Germany May Have Caused an Artificial Earthquake [Update]

When you knock off the defending World Cup champion, things are bound to get a little crazy. So it was in Mexico. In Sunday’s match against Germany, El Tri scored what proved to be the game’s only goal in the 35th minute. The resulting celebration of the thousands gathered in downtown Mexico City seems likely…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

Monsoon Rains Are Already a Disaster For Rohingya Refugee Camps

Religious persecution has forced thousands of Rohingya people to flee their homes in Myanmar for Bangladesh over the past 11 months . Now the 900,000 people who settled in refugee camps near Cox’s Bazar are facing another threat: heavy rain and landslides as the monsoon season picks up. The monsoon has been dubbed one of…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

Welp, We Might Get Another El Niño This Fall

My eastern tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures watchers, get hype. An El Niño Watch is in effect. The climate phenomenon that starts with warmer than normal waters in the eastern tropical Pacific and alters weather around the world has a pretty good chance of forming later this year. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price In the U.S.

Even Donald Trump’s solar tariffs and desire to prop up the coal industry can’t stop renewable energy. A solar auction in Nevada just yielded the cheapest solar project in the country. It broke a record that was set [checks calendar] last week. Not only that, the price the plant will operate at is cheaper than…

Energy Brian Kahn

Antarctica Is Losing An Unfathomable Amount of Ice

Three trillion tons of ice is an near impossible thing to wrap your head around. Even the standard comparisons—it’s 1.2 billion Olympic swimming pools—don’t really make it compute any better. But it’s that very profound nature that makes what’s happening in Antarctica so alarming. New findings published in Nature on Wednesday show that the seventh…

Climate Change Brian Kahn

Climate Change Could Set Kids Up To Fail

At Bay Elementary in San Lorenzo, California, fans and Otter pops are common purchases for teachers alongside crayons, pencils, and construction paper. The school has no air conditioning, and temperatures in the East Bay can crank up into the 90s at the beginning and end of the school year. The blacktop that surrounds the school,…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

Hurricane Bud Could Dump Some Serious Rain on the Drought-Stricken Southwest

Weather whiplash is the perfect descriptor for what’s on tap for the Southwest. Things have been hot and dry since this winter, but they could get wet and wild this weekend as the remnants of Hurricane Bud drench Arizona and parts of New Mexico. Bud is currently churning over the eastern Pacific and is expected…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

Something Is Killing the World’s Oldest Baobabs

The largest baobabs have largely stood alone, bearing witness to history. Radiocarbon dating shows the oldest of these stout-trunked savannah trees have lived for upwards of 2,500 years, surviving the birth of Jesus, the Renaissance, two world wars, and the internet. But they may have met their match in climate change. A new paper published…

Conservation Brian Kahn

The Eastern Pacific Just Saw Its Second Major Hurricane in Less Than a Week

After a sluggish start to eastern Pacific hurricane season, the basin is making up for lost time. Hurricane Bud is the second of back-to-back major hurricanes to form in less than a week. The Category 3 storm is currently churning toward Baja California, though it’s thankfully forecast to weaken before likely landfall this weekend. As…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

The First Eastern Pacific Hurricane of 2018 Is Now a Category 4 Beast

Well that escalated quickly. Hurricane Aletta became the first tropical storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season on Thursday, and by Friday morning it had spun up into a Category 4 monster. The storm might not be done ramping up, either. The meteorological marvel is thankfully not forecast to make landfall (though rip currents and…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

Of Course Trump Is Skipping the Climate Part of the G7

The Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada is going to be winnowed down the Group of Six because Donald Trump’s fee-fees are hurt. According to CNN, the White House announced Thursday the president will be packing up his toys and leaving the gathering of world leaders before its conclusion on Saturday, cutting out on…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

Lots of Congress Members Think Pruitt’s Science ‘Transparency’ Rule Is Garbage

Everyone seems to be tiring of Scott Pruitt’s many scandals, but now it seems people are even getting sick of his crappy policies. A group of 103 Congress members that includes Republicans sent a letter on Thursday to asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator to kill a rule he proposed that would limit the…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

Guatemala Looks Like the Upside Down After Deadly Volcanic Eruption

Entire towns have become tombs of ash following Volcan de Fuego’s eruption earlier this week. Rescue and cleanup efforts have continued, but rain is in the forecast and could hamper them as it turns ash into viscous sludge. And the scenes being captured by aerial photos look straight out of the upside down. Volcan de…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn

The Flooding Crisis Is Here For the US

U.S. coastlines saw record levels of high tide flooding last year, thanks to a combination of powerful storms and rising seas. This year is forecast to approach or even surpass that record. The news comes in a report released Wednesday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which used data from 98 tidal gauges around…

Earth Science Brian Kahn

Brian Kahn

Antarctic Researchers Are Having More Solstice Fun Than You

First Manta Ray Nursery Ever Discovered Shows Marine Protected Areas Matter

China’s Plastic Waste Ban Will Create a Huge Issue For the World

Climate Change Is Out, Drilling Is in With Trump’s New Ocean Policy

You Need These Award-Winning Nature Photos Right Now

Trump’s Tent City in the Desert Could Be a Public Health Disaster

Mexico’s Game-Winning Goal Against Germany May Have Caused an Artificial Earthquake [Update]

Monsoon Rains Are Already a Disaster For Rohingya Refugee Camps

Welp, We Might Get Another El Niño This Fall

Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price In the U.S.

Antarctica Is Losing An Unfathomable Amount of Ice

Climate Change Could Set Kids Up To Fail

Hurricane Bud Could Dump Some Serious Rain on the Drought-Stricken Southwest

Something Is Killing the World’s Oldest Baobabs

The Eastern Pacific Just Saw Its Second Major Hurricane in Less Than a Week

The First Eastern Pacific Hurricane of 2018 Is Now a Category 4 Beast

Of Course Trump Is Skipping the Climate Part of the G7

Lots of Congress Members Think Pruitt’s Science ‘Transparency’ Rule Is Garbage

Guatemala Looks Like the Upside Down After Deadly Volcanic Eruption

The Flooding Crisis Is Here For the US

Up to $1,550 Off on pCloud: Pay Once, Protect Data Forever for World Backup Day

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Adds ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ Guy

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