Earther

Why Kilauea’s Eruption Is Oozing and Not Exploding

The Kilauea eruption that began last week shows no signs of slowing down. The lava lake on the summit of the volcano on the Big Island was overflowing last week before dropping more than 700 feet. Now, all that lava is coming up through fissures in the lower East Rift zone, slowly turning the region…

Earth Science Brian Kahn May 7

Puerto Rican City Tells Trash-Burning Power Plant to Fuck Off

ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO—Carlos Garcia lives in a tiny trailer right along Puerto Rico’s northern coast. A long-time community activist and avid environmentalist, Garcia keeps his door open during the day to let in the sun and breeze. He shuts it at night to protect his solar setup and the few appliances it powers. He shows…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes May 7

Can Leonardo DiCaprio Make Us Love Bugs?

Some people decorate their homes with posters of famous musicians, but cave biologist Iva Njunjić is more into actual beetles than she is The Beatles. That much is obvious the moment you step over the bug-themed doormat into her apartment-cum-home laboratory in the Dutch city of Leiden. Wearing a beetle-print T-shirt, the cofounder of Taxon…

Conservation Max Opray May 7

North Carolina’s New Environmental Justice Board Is a Big Deal

Marian Johnson-Thompson is an environmental health scientist. She’s also a resident of North Carolina. She retired from the National Institutes of Health in 2008, marking an end to a career spent actively protecting human lives—or so it seemed at the time. Now, she’s fighting for racial equity and better environmental health protections on a new…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes May 5

That Time It Reached 55 Degrees In Antarctica During Winter

In recent years, warm winds have caused winter temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula to spike well above freezing. The winds have spurred major melt, causing lakes to form on ice sheets that can eventually accelerate their collapse. Oh, and climate change could make the conditions that spurred the winds worse. Great! These insights, which come…

Climate Change Brian Kahn May 4

Tigers and Polar Bears Get Nothing From Capitalism

It’s rare to see them in the wild, but endangered animals are everywhere. Maybe Tony the Tiger reminded you that Frosted Flakes are great from the front of a cereal box, or that smiling polar bear caught your eye in a recent Coca Cola ad. Whatever your politics, the GOP’s elephant is ubiquitous, and when…

Conservation Starre Vartan May 4

Believe It or Not, This Is Normal

The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s big island has been acting up for weeks. But on Thursday, all hell seemed to break loose when new fissures began to open in the volcano’s East Rift zone, sending lava shooting into the air and causing molten rock to carve a path through the thickly forested Leilani estates residential…

Earth Science Maddie Stone May 4

Old Arctic Sea Ice Is Virtually Gone—and That’s Bad [Update]

The winter of discontent in the Arctic has morphed into a spring of discontent. Shocking new data shows that the region has lost almost all its old sea ice. Its disappearance, driven by warming waters and rising air temperatures, means the region is losing a bulwark against even more dramatic sea ice loss. On Thursday,…

Climate Change Brian Kahn May 4

Keystone XL Wants Montana Tribes to Know It’s Coming

The Keystone XL Pipeline is coming to a Montana neighborhood near you. Developer TransCanada will begin the necessary work, like clearing plants and shit, in fall 2018 to prepare for the beginning of construction in early 2019, according to Reuters. The Department of State’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs sent a…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes May 4

Deadly Dust Storms Are Smothering India

Intense weather has battered South Asia this week. After what was likely the hottest April temperature recorded in the world struck Pakistan at the start of the week, violent dust storms swept across Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, states in northwest India, on Wednesday. The storms left at least 100 dead and toppled 8,000 electricity poles.…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn May 3

Gif: Brian Kahn/NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Gulf of Mexico 2018

Check Out the Otherworldly Lifeforms Scientists Discovered on the Ocean Floor

Sometimes, reality bites. Our political system is in shambles, our infrastructure is collapsing, and now, you can’t even enjoy Kanye’s new album (were you ever really going to, though?). Game of Thrones isn’t coming back until 2019, and colonizing Mars remains a pipe dream. We do have a bunch of ridiculously cool footage of the…

Earth Science Maddie Stone May 3

The Puerto Rican Families Who’ve Gone Off the Grid

When Puerto Rico went dark a couple weeks ago, Mayra Nieves Rosa didn’t even notice. She was too wrapped up working from her home office in the San Juan metro area. It’s not like her lights went out. You see, the sun powers Rosa’s home—enough of it, at least. Any time the lights go out…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes May 3

Beneath a Melting Glacier, a Peruvian Town Prepares For the Worst

Huaraz, Peru–From a stone hut perched on the edge of the glacial lake Palcacocha, 14,980 feet above sea level, Juan Victor Morales radios down to a dispatcher in the city of Huaraz below. He is all that stands between the city and disaster. Today, it’s just a routine call, one the wind-chapped lookout makes every…

Environmental Justice Daniel Setiawan May 3

Carbon Dioxide Has Never Been Higher in Humanity’s Existence

It’s time for your annual reminder humans have pushed the planet into a state unseen in millions of years. Carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii averaged 410.31 parts per million (ppm) in April. That bests last May’s record of 409.65 ppm, is well above the pre-industrial value of 280 ppm, and means…

Climate Change Brian Kahn May 2

Please Don’t Do This

The world is full of resistance grifters preying on people’s fears about the death of democracy, equality, and a whole host of other things being chipped away at by President Donald Trump. Given the Trump administration’s climate denial, it’s shocking we haven’t had a scheme tied to climate change. But that niche is now filled,…

Environmental Justice Brian Kahn May 2

The Hopi Tribe Takes Controversial Coal Battle to Court

The Hopi Tribe in northeastern Arizona is heading to the court to keep the largest coal plant in the West open. The tribe, along with the United Mine Workers of America and Peabody Energy, announced a lawsuit Tuesday against the Central Arizona Project (CAP), which powers 90 percent of its water pumping system through this…

Environmental Justice Yessenia Funes May 2

We Finally Know What ‘Hot As Balls’ Really Means

Tired: the age old fight of Fahrenheit vs. Celsius. Wired: a new scale of temperature ranging from ‘colder than Mars’ to ‘hot as dick’. Just in time for summer, computer scientist Jim Webb has blessed us with a curse word-based temperature scale using science. From here on out, 84 degrees Fahrenheit will be known as…

Earth Science Brian Kahn May 2

In Kenya, a Local Tribe Is Saving the Elephants It Once Killed

The Samburu people of Kenya’s northern plains have been in conflict with elephants for years. Elephants and people both need water, and drought means there’s less to go around. The majestic animals also tear down acacia trees the Samburus’ livestock eat. These are just a few of the reasons people in the region have a…

Conservation Yessenia Funes May 1

Pakistan May Have Just Set a World Heat Record

High temperatures are forecast to reach the mid-80s this week in New York, and I’m dreading it. But I have a plan to stay cool: just thinking of how much hotter it is in Pakistan, which is in the middle of a blistering heat wave. Temperatures reported to have cracked 50.2 degrees Celsius (122.3 degrees…

Earth Science Brian Kahn May 1

The Arctic’s Future: Less Ice, More Storms

In August 2012, a monster cyclone roared to life over Siberia before moving out over the Arctic Ocean. Meteorologists watched, agog as the beast continued to gather strength for days, before finally dying out over the Canadian Archipelago. Cyclones are common in the Arctic, but they tend to be most powerful in the winter, which…

Earth Science Maddie Stone May 1

Why Kilauea’s Eruption Is Oozing and Not Exploding

Puerto Rican City Tells Trash-Burning Power Plant to Fuck Off

Can Leonardo DiCaprio Make Us Love Bugs?

North Carolina’s New Environmental Justice Board Is a Big Deal

That Time It Reached 55 Degrees In Antarctica During Winter

Tigers and Polar Bears Get Nothing From Capitalism

Believe It or Not, This Is Normal

Old Arctic Sea Ice Is Virtually Gone—and That’s Bad [Update]

Keystone XL Wants Montana Tribes to Know It’s Coming

Deadly Dust Storms Are Smothering India

Check Out the Otherworldly Lifeforms Scientists Discovered on the Ocean Floor

The Puerto Rican Families Who’ve Gone Off the Grid

Beneath a Melting Glacier, a Peruvian Town Prepares For the Worst

Carbon Dioxide Has Never Been Higher in Humanity’s Existence

Please Don’t Do This

The Hopi Tribe Takes Controversial Coal Battle to Court

We Finally Know What ‘Hot As Balls’ Really Means

In Kenya, a Local Tribe Is Saving the Elephants It Once Killed

Pakistan May Have Just Set a World Heat Record

The Arctic’s Future: Less Ice, More Storms

First Statewide Data Center Ban Passed by Maine Legislature

FCC Exempts Netgear from Foreign-Made Router Ban for Some Reason

Jamie Dornan Is Your New Aragorn in ‘The Hunt for Gollum’

Trump’s Fed Pick Is Knee Deep in Tech and Crypto Investments

The First Trailer for ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ Takes Terror Stateside

The Trump Phone Still Looks Like Total Trash

‘Masters of the Universe’ Really, Really Wants to Be the Next ‘Barbie’

Samsung’s Micro RGB TVs Provide So Much Color It May Be Too Much

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

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

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