EartherClimate Change

Evidence For Global Warming Passes Physics’ Gold Standard Threshold

You and I, we know climate change is definitely real. But physicists have a gold standard for the burden of proof known as five sigma. A new analysis shows that even the most conservative climate data have passed this point. Scientists released the analysis of satellite temperature data in Nature Climate Change to mark 40 … Continued

Earther

The U.S. May Finally Get an Early Warning System For Volcanoes

America is home to 161 active volcanoes spread across 12 states and two overseas territories. This easily makes it one of the most volcanic places on Earth, which is why it’s deeply strange that the United States doesn’t yet have a nationwide early warning system for its fiery mountains. A land conservation bill that passed … Continued

EartherConservation

Congress Just Passed a Conservation Bill That Creates Over a Million Acres of New Public Land

Both sides of Congress can apparently get on the same page when it comes to public lands. The House of Representatives passed a bipartisan conservation bill Tuesday that designates roughly 1.3 million acres as wilderness and establishes four new national monuments. The Senate already approved the Natural Resources Management Act earlier this month, so all … Continued

Earther

The Helicopter Pilots Who Carpet-Bomb Islands to Battle Invasive Rats

Most people, if tasked with flying a helicopter over a Subantarctic island to complete a multimillion-dollar conservation mission, would be understandably nervous. But not Peter Garden. “I’ve never been nervous—I enjoy it,” he told Earther. “This has never been a job for me.” The responsibility that everyone else would definitely call “a job” is pretty … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Northern Hemisphere Just Experienced Its First-Ever Category 5 Cyclone in February

We’ve seen a lot of weird-ass tropical cyclones in recent years. This week, we can add another one to the list. Typhoon Wutip formed and brushed Guam late last week. That alone made it an oddity in terms of timing and location. But rather than weakening as forecast, the storm blew up into a Category … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Four Things That Could Kill Us Before the Cloud Apocalypse Does

If you read the news on Monday, you may have heard people freaking out about how climate change is finally coming for the clouds. A study released in Nature Geoscience chronicles how stratocumulus clouds, those low hanging clouds that lend themselves well to daydreaming, could one day disappear if we keep emitting carbon. Their disappearance … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Costa Rica Lays Out Plan to Zero Out Carbon Emissions by 2050

Time to pack my bags and move to Costa Rica. The tiny Central American country is setting an example with a plan to fully decarbonize by 2050. President Carlos Alvarado officially signed the decree to decarbonize by mid-century on Sunday. On Monday, he followed it up by announcing that the country would extend its moratorium … Continued

EartherClimate Change

It Takes Just a Few Years For Extreme Weather to Start Seeming Normal, Study Finds

Our response to climate change is often compared to the hypothetical boiling frog scenario, where a frog sits in a pot of water as the heat is slowly turned up until it’s boiled to death. Unfortunately, while frogs really don’t like being boiled at all, a new study on responses to extreme weather suggests the … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Dozens of Youth Activists Arrested After Green New Deal Protest in Mitch McConnell’s Office

On Monday, youth activists occupied Mitch McConnell’s office bearing banners calling on him to look them in the eyes and explain why he doesn’t support a Green New Deal. They were eventually expelled, and 42 were arrested by Capitol Police for unlawfully demonstrating, the law enforcement agency told Earther. The move marks the latest escalation … Continued

EartherClimate Change

The Marshall Islands Plans to Raise Its Land to Survive Rising Sea Levels

The Republic of the Marshall Islands isn’t going to allow the rising seas to wipe it off the map. Instead, the islands will attempt to rise above. Literally. President Hilda Heine announced a plan to elevate the country’s islands in an interview with the Marshall Islands Journal Friday, reports RNZ Pacific. Sea level rise and … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Huge Storms Sweep the South, Resulting in At Least Three Fatalities

Violent storms across swathes of the Southeast have caused several deaths and caused major flooding this weekend, with landslides also reported in several areas. Rain in parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee reached an astonishing one to one and a half feet, according to CBS News contributing meteorologist Jeff Berardelli. Per the Associated Press, a … Continued

Earther

Report: Grand Jury Hearing Evidence That Ryan Zinke Lied to Federal Investigators

Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke—who used to be one of the nation’s top environmental officials until he resigned last year amid a slew of ethics scandals and investigations—has apparently failed to leave his troubles behind with his backwards ranger hat. Per a Friday report by the Washington Post, prosecutors are currently showing evidence … Continued

Earther

Kelly Knight Craft, Trump’s Pick for UN Ambassador, Once Said She Believed ‘Both Sides’ of Climate Change

President Donald Trump has announced that he will nominate Kelly Knight Craft to fill the role of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The president tweeted the announcement Friday, adding that Craft “has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Eating to Save the Planet Isn’t Just About What I Eat—It’s About What I Don’t

In three weeks of eating a diet that was devised by scientists to sustain a planet with 10 billion humans, I’ve learned about my own relationship with food and the ups and downs of eating in 2050. This week, I looked in my fridge and realized there’s one thing I’ve really been struggling with. Pushing … Continued

EartherEarth Science

An Extremely Rare February Typhoon Is Approaching Guam

Snow in the hills outside Los Angeles, move over. There’s a new freak weather event in town. Typhoon Wutip is currently gathering strength just south of Guam, making it the first typhoon of 2019 and just the second one on record to spin up in this part of the Pacific in February, according to data … Continued

EartherEarth Science

New Studies of Ancient Lava Add Mystery to the Dinosaur Extinction Story

Solidified lava from ancient volcanoes, over a mile thick, covers a portion of west-central India nearly the size of Texas. Contained in the dramatic and craggy striped rock are secrets scientists are only beginning to uncover—secrets that could partially rewrite the story of the dinosaur mass extinction 66 million years ago. Two teams have published … Continued

EartherEarth Science

An Iceberg 30 Times the Size of Manhattan Is About to Break Off Antarctica

An Antarctic ice shelf that’s been cracking up for years is now very close to giving birth to an iceberg roughly 30 times the size of Manhattan. With a long-term scientific research station right in the neighborhood, the far-flung event is being watched closely, and with some trepidation. On Wednesday, NASA released a new image … Continued

Earther

World’s Biggest Bee, Once Thought Extinct, Has Been Found Alive

A black, thumb-sized missile sails through the jungle air, a thunderous buzzing announcing its arrival. The massive insect lands heavily on a tree-bound termite nest, taking a moment to fold its brassy wings and stretch its humongous, curved jaws. This is Wallace’s giant bee, the beefiest and bumbliest bee on Earth. After going missing for … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Well Dang, Lab-Grown Meat Might Bad For the Planet Too

The Western world has a huge meat eating issue that lab-grown meat is, according to its proponents, supposed to help solve. High-tech meat supporters like to talk about how, in helping wean people off eating cows, their lab-grown substitutes will reduce carbon dioxide and methane emissions associated with raising cattle. There’s just one slight problem. … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Report: Trump Wants Guy Who Compared Climate Science to the Holocaust to Head Climate Panel

Donald Trump’s administration is assembling a panel to determine whether climate change—which scientific experts broadly agree poses an existential threat to the safety and well-being of the world’s population and is caused by human emissions of greenhouse gases—is really a threat to national security. According to reports in the Washington Post and New York Times, … Continued