Maddie Stone

Earther

The U.S. Government Was Supposed to Tell Us How Hot 2018 Was Today, But, the Shutdown

If you’re wondering exactly how warm it was in 2018, you may have to wait for the U.S. government to start functioning again. Every year around this time, NASA and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) release their annual checkup on Earth’s climate. Independent climate nonprofit Berkeley Earth also puts out its annual report, as … Continued

EartherConservation

2018’s Award-Winning Ocean Photos Will Transport You to Another Planet

In the sapphire-to-stygian waters that cover 70 percent of Earth’s surface, fish school in iridescent sheets, whales sing mournful tunes, and jellyfish bloom like wildflowers. The ocean is a teeming mystery that most of us rarely dip our toes in. Thankfully, underwater photographers are working to bring portraits of its inhabitants back to shore. And … Continued

Earther

This Part of Antarctica Was Not Supposed to Be Shrinking

When scientists talk about Antarctic melting, they’re usually referring to West Antarctica, where giant coastal glaciers are shedding incredible amounts of water. But across the Transantarctic mountains to the east, there’s a much larger mantle of ice that’s generally thought to be keeping its chill. A new study, however, asserts that East Antarctica is also … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Project to Eradicate Termites Reveals How Much Rainforests Need Them

Homeowners tend to equate termites with property value apocalypse, but ecologically speaking, they’re more a force of stability than destruction. A new study points to how termites can help the rainforests they call home to weather droughts—which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity as climate change causes the tropics to heat up. Termites … Continued

Earther

Trump Threatens to Cut off Federal Wildfire Aid to California in Ill-Informed, Typo-Laden Tweet  

Amidst a government shutdown and on the heels of a sober report concluding California’s Camp Fire was the world’s costliest disaster last year, President Donald Trump decided it would be a good time to reiterate the lie that “poor forest management” is to blame for California’s wildfires woes. He also again threatened to cut off … Continued

Earther

Antarctic Sea Ice Is In Record-Low Territory Again, and Nobody Knows Why

What’s happening to Arctic sea ice is pretty straightforward: Earth is getting warmer, and everything’s melting. But on the other side of the planet, things are more complicated, as evidenced by the latest Antarctic sea ice slump that has scientists scratching their heads. Antarctica rang in the new year with record-low levels of sea ice, … Continued

Earther

It Snowed in the Arizona Desert, and the Photos Look Otherworldly

The deserts of the southwestern United States have a spare, ethereal beauty, and it turns out a light dusting of snow only cranks up the enchantment. Residents of the southwest were treated to some unusual snowfall this week, with wintry scenes emerging from Albuquerque to Tucson to the Grand Canyon. In the Sonoran desert, powder … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Scientists Just Melted a Hole Through 3,500 Feet of Ice to Reach a Mysterious Antarctic Lake

While you were baking cookies and binging Netflix shows over Christmas, a team of about 50 scientists, drillers, and support staff was attempting to punch through nearly 4,000 feet of ice to access an Antarctic subglacial lake for just the second time in human history. And folks, they did it. On Friday, the Subglacial Antarctic … Continued

EartherClimate Change

‘Not the Leadership This Moment Calls For’: Progressives Blast Nancy Pelosi’s New ‘Climate Crisis’ Committee

In one of the clearest signs yet that House Democrats might try doing something, anything at all, about climate change come January, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Friday that Congress would be establishing a new “Climate Crisis” committee, to be chaired by Florida Representative Kathy Castor. “This committee will be critical to the entire Congress’s … Continued

EartherEarth Science

How Hawaii’s Volcanoes Could Help Us Find Life on Saturn’s Icy Moon

Kilauea’s historically huge 2018 eruption didn’t just transform the southeastern corner of Hawaii’s Big Island. Most of the lava wound up spilling into the ocean, creating an enormous new undersea delta that hardy ocean microbes are already colonizing. That finding, along with the broader exploratory campaign that made it possible, might inform the search for … Continued

Earther

Industrial Chloroform Emissions Are Rising, and That’s Bad News

One of the rare bright spots amidst the environmental hellscape of 2018 was a United Nations report that the ozone hole was on track to be fully healed by mid century. But because no good news comes without caveats, scientists are now reporting that overlooked emissions of chloroform, which are on the rise in East … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Listen to the Creepy Noises Picked Up at a Space Weather Station in Antarctica

Scientists often detect weird sounds in Antarctica, from the groans of melting glaciers to seismic waves rippling through ice shelves. But a space weather station run by the British Antarctic Survey may hold the most diverse selection of acoustic oddities collected on the frozen continent to date. Now, thanks to BAS researcher Nigel Meredith, these … Continued

Earther

Meet the Knitters Who Are Turning Climate Change Data Into a Fashion Statement

Climate change is making winter warmer, but many of us still need to bundle up with a cozy scarf this time of year. Now, thanks to a group of radical knitters (yes, knitters) in Washington state, that ubiquitous winter accessory can double as an analog climate record for any location you choose. Launched in 2017, … Continued

Earther

The Machines That Spy on Antarctica’s Hidden Lakes

The solar panels stood tall against the icy expanse as the four-person team approached on snowmobile. GZ20 hadn’t seen visitors in a year, having endured yet another brutal Antarctic winter since the last time its human caretakers checked in. But the fact that its power source could be seen from over three kilometers out—a spec … Continued

Earther

How 30 Million Dead and Dying Trees Are Reshaping Puerto Rico’s Forests

When Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017, it knocked out power island-wide, battered infrastructure, and stripped forests of their leaves. Over the months that ensued, upwards of a thousand people would die as a result of the storm. So would about 30 million trees. That last stunning figure comes courtesy of research presented … Continued

EartherEarth Science

The Fossils of the 21st Century

In 100 million years, human civilization will have bit the dust. Perhaps a nuclear war scorched the planet, or a last-ditch bid to solve climate change backfired horribly. Or, more optimistically, we overcame the myriad challenges of the 21st century, took to the stars and evolved into new species on alien worlds. Either way, what … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Kilauea’s Recent Eruption Was Its Biggest in Two Centuries, Scientists Confirm

It’s been over three months since fresh lava oozed out of Kilauea volcano, and the eruption that turned southeastern Hawaii into a fiery hellscape has receded from the headlines. But for scientists with the US Geological Survey’s Hawaii Volcano Observatory (HVO), the story is far from over. These researchers are just beginning to unpack the … Continued

Earther

Planet-Hacking Became More Urgent and Terrifying Than Ever This Year

Somewhere between a viral fake story about Harvard researchers suggesting we ‘dim the sun’, and a major, government-funded report laying out how we might re-engineer the oceans to save coral reefs, it hit me last month: This whole geoengineering idea has become suddenly, frighteningly mainstream. Geoengineering—a grab bag of ways we could use technology to … Continued

Earther

New House Science Committee Chair to Climate Scientists: We’ve Got Your Back Again

Change is in the air over at the House Committee on Space, Science, and Technology. An oozing sump of climate change skepticism under the leadership of Texas Republican Lamar Smith, the committee is poised to be taken over by Democrats and led by Texas’s Eddie Bernice Johnson, a registered nurse and longtime champion of science … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Great Barrier Reef Is Becoming More Heat-Resistant—at a Price

In 2016 and 2017, disaster struck the world’s largest living structure: back-to-back heat waves caused half of all corals on the 1,400-mile-long Great Barrier Reef to die. But there’s a glass-half-full perspective on this grim news, which is that half of the reef’s corals—approximately 10 billion of them—are still alive. And they just went through … Continued