The World Wildlife Fund said on Friday it will be pursuing charges against a local official who, upon receiving a report of the first sighting of a wild bison in Germany in over 250 years, promptly ordered hunters to shoot the animal dead.
Floridians were spared the brunt of Hurricane Irma’s destructive power last week, when the storm instead took direct aim at some of the most pristine sections of the Everglades. Early reports from scientists suggest that these ecosystems saw serious damage, and could face a long road to recovery.
The Department of Homeland Security has moved to waive a stunning list of environmental regulations for the construction of Donald Trump’s stupid border wall. You know, the same one which depending on how lit the president happens to be at any given moment, he has promised would be between anywhere from 30 to 65 feet…
Summer is coming to an end, and you may be thinking fondly back to times spent lounging on a beach, soft white sand flowing between your fingers and toes as you napped under the Sun. Well, forget relaxing and start worrying, baby!
In what would be a world first, the government of President Emmanuel Macron wants to phase out all oil and gas exploration and production in France and its overseas territories by 2040. Sounds dramatic, but the EU nation has very little to lose as it sets its sights on a greener future.
In 1989, amidst mounting scientific evidence, dozens of nations joined forces to sign a treaty aimed at halting the expansion of a massive hole in Earth’s ozone layer. Nearly thirty years later, the Montreal Protocol has done just that. But it has also done something its architects never intended. It has become one of…
Sea snakes are a striking sight on the sun-dappled Pacific and Indian Ocean coral reefs they call home. They swim with deliberate, yet graceful winding movements above the reef, and they are often conspicuously-colored, with many species sporting patterns flush with yellows, oranges, and blues, broken up by stripes,…
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…
In 2005, at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C., the National Association of Evangelicals was on the verge of doing something novel: affirming science. Specifically, the 30-million-member group, which represents 51 Christian denominations, was debating how to advance a new platform called “For the Health of a Nation
A US company has sold nearly five tons of genetically-engineered Atlantic salmon fillets in Canada, marking the world’s first sale of GM fish for human consumption. Skeptics of the futuristic food are crying foul, citing ecological and health concerns, but government scientists say folks eating the modified fish have…
In honor of International Tiger Day, PETA sent an open letter to Tinder’s founder and chairman Sean Rad asking him to ban tiger photos on the service. That’s actually a fantastic idea—and not just because it makes you look like a tool.
In August 2016, fewer coal miners were employed in the US than anytime in modern history: just 48,600. A year later, little more than 50,000 miners are working, but the industry is still in dire straits—layoffs and mine shutdowns have led to rampant unemployment in West Virginia, Kentucky and Montana. President Trump…
It looks like President Donald Trump might get his stupid wall after all. Last week, the House approved a $1.6 billion spending bill that funds the construction of a “contiguous and impassable wall” along the Mexican border, and just yesterday the Department of Homeland security issued an environmental waiver to…
It’s a well-worn fact that our round Earth is warming, and that human carbon emissions are the cause. What’s less well-known is how much warming we’ve already committed our planet to in the future. A new study crunched some numbers and came to an alarming answer—but other experts are already criticizing its approach,…
Last week, a draft of a Department of Energy study on electric grid reliability leaked. Though its final version could change, it essentially found that an increased reliance on renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, have not made the grid less stable. Instead, electric grids are “more reliable today”…
Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are probably the most endearingly doofy-looking animals ever to grace the African continent. These Seussian snufflers look like someone threw an anteater, a rabbit, a pig, and an armadillo into a smelter. Aardvarks have entered the consciousness of millions of children as both the first…
There’s no doubt that if we’re going to stop or even slow down climate change, we have to get our collective shit together. But collective action starts with individual choices, and for all the data-driven decision makers out there, the path forward just got a bit more lucid. A new study in Environmental Research…
The Greenland ice sheet is vast, majestic, pristine....and peppered with bacteria that seem equipped to survive in industrial waste, according to a new study. Which really makes you question the whole the pristine bit, now, doesn’t it?
From 1347 to 1351, a nightmare disease ravaged Europe, afflicting victims with putrid black boils, fevers, vomiting, and in short order, death. Daily life ground to a halt as the Black Death spread along medieval trade routes, claiming an estimated 20 million lives with ruthless efficiency. Now, a team of researchers…
Like that painful hangnail you’ve been eyeing for days—except billions of times larger, made of ice not keratin, and studied by dozens of scientists worldwide—a Delaware-sized glacier along Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf is hanging by a thread, poised to break off into the ocean any day now.
