Videos
Close your eyes and picture a vivid green, lush rain forest that’s teeming with life. If I asked you where you imagined you were, your answer would probably be something like the Amazon or Costa Rica. But not too long ago—geologically speaking—your reply could have been the Arctic.
News & More
Perhaps no issue defines our Anthropocene Age more than climate change. The topic has been in news headlines for more than four decades now, ever since U.S. scientist Wallace Broecker put the term global warming into the public domain in the title of a 1975 scientific paper.
Videos
Our oceans are sometimes referred to as our planet’s forgotten lungs. While forests—which usually get the credit for being the world’s “breathing” apparatus—do help maintain the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, they cover roughly only a third of the Earth’s land area.
Conservation
This summer, the world lost a Nebraska-size chunk of forests. Logging, expanding palm oil plantations and wildfires are to blame. This continuing deforestation trend could have devastating implications for the climate. Simply put, forests aren’t merely pretty places. We need them.
Videos
Around the world, deforestation is causing millions of species to lose their natural habitats. Estimates are that tracts half the size of England are lost annually, and scientists say that the world’s rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of clearing.
News & More
The United States has officially left the Paris Agreement on climate change, the 2015 pact in which more than 150 nations pledged to curb greenhouse gas emissions and support the plans of poor countries in developing clean energy and protections against climate-related disasters.
Videos
There’s a song I think of every July. It’s titled “Summer in the City,” and it was recorded by The Lovin’ Spoonful way back in 1966.
News & More
In 628 months, there hasn’t been a cool one. That’s more than 52 years. “Global warming has made cold scarce,” writes Brian Kahn in an April 19, 2017, article published on the Climate Central website.
News & More
Anything in deep freeze was supposed to be safe—for forever. Such as our toxic wastes. Such as the crop seeds we’ll need in case of a global catastrophe and food shortage. But we can’t count on the cold anymore.
News & More
On the tundra of Siberia, near the coldest city on Earth, there’s a place that local people have come to call a “gateway to the underworld” or a portal to hell. It’s a huge crater, and it has been growing for years. Currently, it measures a mile long and nearly 400 feet deep.
News & More
As a kid, I looked forward to my weekend road trips with my big sister, who was old enough to have her driver’s license. We usually traveled along Interstate 90, up to northern Wisconsin.
News & More
Called the “lungs of the world,” our planet’s forests store more carbon dioxide in their leaves, soil and wood than is contained in the Earth’s entire atmosphere—often for hundreds of years. Forests keep the Earth cool and give off oxygen, making it possible for us to live here.
