EartherEarth Science

Enormous Wildfires Are Spreading in Siberia

Dry, warm weather has primed Siberia for wildfires this spring. After a moderate outbreak in April, the countryside has lit up in a major way in May. The fires are the latest in a litany of changes taking place in the northern part of the world. Wildfires lit up last week in Russia’s Far East … Continued

EartherEnergy

More Republicans Support Expanding Renewable Energy Than Fossil Fuels

When Earther last checked in on Americans’ views on climate change, we found conservative climate denial is a uniquely American trait. A new Pew Research survey affirms the partisan divide is as strong as ever when it comes to accepting basic climate science. But there’s also something that should give you hope: majorities of Democrats … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Florida May Get a Tropical Cyclone This Week

We’re still a few weeks out from the official start of hurricane season, but tropical cyclones don’t care much for regulation. That’s why there’s a small chance one could spin up off the Florida Panhandle this week. A large, low pressure area filled with clouds and thunderstorms has developed across the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Costa Rica Plans to Be the World’s First Fossil Fuel-Free Country

If you’re looking for a beacon of climate hope in our dark, wretched world, look to Costa Rica. The country accounts for a fraction of the world’s carbon emissions, but something like 99 percent of global ambition to address climate change. Case in point: this week, its new president announced he plans to make the … Continued

ScienceSpace & Spaceflight

Are Jupiter and Venus Messing With Earth’s Climate?

Our planet is in a remarkably circular orbit around the Sun, but as new research points out, Earth’s orbit sometimes experiences a slight jolt, thanks to the combined gravitational influence of Jupiter and Venus. Incredibly, this cycle has been going on for at least 215 million years—and one scientist suggests it could possibly have influenced … Continued

EartherClimate Change

That Time It Reached 55 Degrees In Antarctica During Winter 

In recent years, warm winds have caused winter temperatures on the Antarctic Peninsula to spike well above freezing. The winds have spurred major melt, causing lakes to form on ice sheets that can eventually accelerate their collapse. Oh, and climate change could make the conditions that spurred the winds worse. Great! These insights, which come … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Old Arctic Sea Ice Is Virtually Gone—and That’s Bad [Update]

The winter of discontent in the Arctic has morphed into a spring of discontent. Shocking new data shows that the region has lost almost all its old sea ice. Its disappearance, driven by warming waters and rising air temperatures, means the region is losing a bulwark against even more dramatic sea ice loss. On Thursday, … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Deadly Dust Storms Are Smothering India

Intense weather has battered South Asia this week. After what was likely the hottest April temperature recorded in the world struck Pakistan at the start of the week, violent dust storms swept across Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, states in northwest India, on Wednesday. The storms left at least 100 dead and toppled 8,000 electricity poles. … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Carbon Dioxide Has Never Been Higher in Humanity’s Existence

It’s time for your annual reminder humans have pushed the planet into a state unseen in millions of years. Carbon dioxide measurements at Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii averaged 410.31 parts per million (ppm) in April. That bests last May’s record of 409.65 ppm, is well above the pre-industrial value of 280 ppm, and means … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Please Don’t Do This

The world is full of resistance grifters preying on people’s fears about the death of democracy, equality, and a whole host of other things being chipped away at by President Donald Trump. Given the Trump administration’s climate denial, it’s shocking we haven’t had a scheme tied to climate change. But that niche is now filled, … Continued

Earther

Let’s Meet Jim Bridenstine, Trump’s NASA Administrator

Politicizing NASA is the final frontier. Or I guess I should say, it was. When the Senate confirmed Jim Bridenstine as the agency’s administrator last month, it confirmed the first politician to ever hold the post. The vote broke along party lines, and in many ways, the selection reflects the yawning chasm that defines American … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Scott Pruitt Was Never Going to Bring Back the EPA Climate Change Website

Tomorrow, it will have been one year since the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) climate change website was taken offline. And all signs are pointing toward it never coming back under the Trump administration. On April 28, 2017, visitors who arrived at the EPA’s climate website were redirected to a page with this: Thank you for … Continued

EartherEarth Science

It Looks Like the US Just Set a New Daily Rainfall Record

Though it didn’t garner as much attention as the never-ending string of nor’easters, the biggest weather story of 2018 so far was Kauai’s epic deluge earlier this month. According to a preliminary analysis, the storm could’ve set an all-time record for the U.S. In the span of just 24 hours between April 15-16, 49.69 inches … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Scientists Are Fed Up With This

The first 16 months of Donald Trump’s presidency have been pretty ugly for science. The administration has kicked inconvenient research to the curb in its decision making, pulled out of the Paris Agreement on climate change, removed sound science from public websites, and muzzled federal scientists. Scientists are sick of it, and they’re letting the … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Climate Change Will Only Make California’s Weather Whiplash Worse

When it comes to California, the concept of an average winter wet season is as useless as a bike on Los Angeles’ 405 freeway. Witness the recent multi-year drought, followed by one of the wettest winters on record in 2016-17. Or just check out this past winter, which started out bone dry before a wild … Continued

EartherClimate Change

Satellites Show How Major Reservoirs Are Drying Up Around the World

Climate change could make drought a way of life in certain parts of the world. Though the prospect of “Day Zero” in Cape Town is being staved off, it’s far from the only city to suffer through a water crisis right now. In a new report, the World Resources Institute (WRI) highlighted four other regions … Continued

EartherEarth Science

A Bizarre Late-Season Rainstorm Is Coming to California

Following a bone-dry start to the water year, California saw some much-needed rainfall in the form of an atmospheric river last month. Now, even though the wet season should be winding down, the Golden State’s getting another. The moisture will boost the state’s rainfall totals but could actually shrink snowpack, setting the still-too-dry region up … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Antarctica’s Ice Is Becoming Unhinged

The two most important words you need to know to understand the fate of our coastlines are “grounding line.” Those words describe where Antarctica’s voluminous ice shelves begin to float, holding back a wall of ice on land. A study published on Monday in Nature Geoscience is among the first to create a detailed snapshot … Continued

EartherEnvironmental Justice

Six Months After Maria, It’s Clear Puerto Rico’s Terrible Grid Will Be a Lasting Legacy

It’s been six months since Hurricane Maria tore apart Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Island’s electrical grids and turned life on the islands upside down. In those six months, murders surged, the U.S. government continually bungled the response, more than 135,000 residents left the island for the mainland, and we still don’t know how … Continued

EartherEarth Science

Australia Had Itself a Weekend of Wild Weather

The Land Down Under was just a plague of locusts short of going full biblical this weekend. Unusual heat, destructive fires, a raging tropical cyclone, and powerful winds all swept across Australia in the span of 48 hours. Oh, and it snowed in Tasmania. The weird weather was the result of an active trough of … Continued