Nature & Wildlife
Animals and plants are remarkably resilient in the face of environmental changes. Their creative adaptations and strategies for surviving in ever-altering conditions include going dormant, developing drought tolerance, adjusting migrations, switching to nocturnal activity, forming a salinity tolerance and making social partnerships.
Conservation
Virtual reality (VR)—a technology that simulates a three-dimensional (3D) environment, allowing users to interact with a computer-generated world as if they were physically present—can create dynamic, immersive and personalized experiences.
Conservation
Conservation is growing up. The field is no longer just about how to protect an animal group’s numbers and making efforts to keep it from going extinct by identifying key habitats and focusing on natural resource management. Ethnobiology has entered the conservation space in a big way.
Nature & Wildlife
Wild animals are not just the inhabitants of the natural world—they are its architects. That’s the exciting finding from a new study that reveals how hundreds of species have shaped the landscapes we depend on, from beavers creating entire wetlands to hippos carving drainage systems.
Conservation
In 2024, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels reached a record high. That may come as no surprise, as global carbon emissions from fossil fuels have reached record highs for at least the past several years, with 2022, 2023 and now 2024 all setting new records.
Conservation
In our human-dominated world, Earth’s most iconic and imperiled wildlife are facing tough decisions. Two lion brothers recently illustrated that fact when they undertook a long, record-breaking swim across a predator-infested African river in search of homes and mates.
Conservation
Wildfires. Global warming. Floods. Pollution. Mass extinctions. With the 24-hour news cycle constantly spouting negative headlines about the state of the planet, it’s easy to feel down, especially during the winter months.
Latin America
Of the seven big cats, jaguars just don’t seem to get the love that more well-known felines like lions, tigers and leopards do. (The other three? Cougars, cheetahs and snow leopards.) International Jaguar Day, celebrated each year on November 29, aims to change that!
News & More
One of the great mysteries of late medieval history is why did the Norse, who had established successful settlements in southern Greenland in 985, abandon them in the early 15th century? The consensus view has long been that colder temperatures, associated with the Little Ice Age, helped make the colonies unsustainable.
Conservation
Our planet’s climate is changing before our eyes. Weather events have gotten more extreme, and we’re in the midst of a sixth mass extinction.
News & More
“Only one Earth. In the universe are billions of galaxies, in our galaxy are billions of planets, but there is #OnlyOneEarth. Let’s take care of it.” That’s the thought behind this year’s World Environment Day, June 5, 2022.
Conservation
Wildfires, flooding, drought, deforestation, pollution—it seems like every time we turn on the television, the radio, or log onto social media, we are bombarded with pessimistic or downright negative news about the planet we call home.
