The USPS is an extremely dangerous place to work

The U.S. Postal Service reports more severe injuries than any other employer, according to OSHA.

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The Purest Type

Pronghorn were almost perfectly fitted to the West Texas landscape. And then people started building fences. By Sterry Butcher.

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Three years to safeguard our climate

Christiana Figueres and colleagues set out a six-point plan for turning the tide of the world’s carbon dioxide by 2020.

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Urban nature: What kinds of plants and wildlife flourish in cities?

Biodiversity refers to the variety of all living things on Earth, but people often have very specific ideas of what it means. If you run an online search for images of biodiversity, you are likely to find lots of photos of tropical rainforests and coral reefs. Those ecosystems are invaluable, but biodiversity also exists in many other places. More than half of the people on Earth live in cities, and that number is growing, so it is especially important to understand how biodiversity patterns occur in our man-made environments.

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What’s Killing the Yellow River?

Rapid development is fueling China’s rise. The cost may be one of the country’s most vital natural resources.

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Plastiglomerate

Whichever (if any) start date is chosen, plastiglomerate—a substance that is neither industrially manufactured nor geologically created—seems a fraught but nonetheless incontrovertible marker of the anthropogenic impact on the world; it is evidence of human presence written directly into the rock. By Kirsty Robertson. (Dec. 2016)

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A gardener went to Japan to polish her pruning skills. She found tough love.

An American ventures into Kyoto gardens.

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Most modern horses came from just two ancient lineages

Horse breeding records are some of the most impressive efforts to chronicle animal lineages in human history, with some stretching back thousands of years. Yet decoding the genetic origins of today’s horses has proved remarkably difficult. Now, a new study finds that nearly all modern horse breeds can be traced to two distinct, ancient Middle Eastern lines that were brought to Europe about 700 years ago.

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Off-Grid Devices Draw Drinking Water from Dry Air

Sunlight-powered moisture-absorbing technologies are becoming economical. By Donna J. Nelson.

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House Committee Advances GOP Legislation Attacking National Forest Protections

The bill would devastate national forests by gutting endangered species protections, limiting public comment and environmental review and increase logging. By Brett Hart.

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Solar Costs Are Hitting Jaw-Dropping Lows in Every Region of the World

This may sound a little repetitive, but it's impossible to ignore: The decline in solar costs is not slowing down. GTM Research expects a 27 percent drop in average global project prices by 2022, or about 4.4 percent each year. Those improvements are not limited to the U.S. They are occurring globally, and in some cases resulting in even sharper price declines than those America is experiencing.

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Pesticides damage survival of bee colonies, landmark study shows

The world’s largest ever field trial demonstrates widely used insecticides harm both honeybees and wild bees, increasing calls for a ban. By Damian Carrington.

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Mount Baker Full Moon At Sunset

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Yellowstone supervolcano has just been hit by more than 400 earthquakes in one week

The eruption risk at Yellowstone remains low, but one of the recent earthquakes was the biggest to have hit since 2014. By Hannah Osborne. (June 19, 2017)

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3,000-year-old textiles are earliest evidence of chemical dyeing in the Levant

Tel Aviv University archaeologists have revealed that cloth samples found in the Israeli desert present the earliest evidence of plant-based textile dyeing in the region. They were found at a large-scale copper smelting site and a nearby temple in the copper ore district of Timna in Israel's Arava desert and are estimated to date from the 13th-10th centuries BCE.

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In a First, Bird Uses Tools to Make Sweet Music

The palm cockatoo is the only species aside from humans that can drum a rhythmic beat with its own homemade objects, a new study says.

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Stunning Footage Captured From Inside A Fusion Reactor

This immensely high-speed footage was released captured inside the Compass Tokamak at Institute of Plasma Physics IPP. It's a pretty beautiful sight, and it shows what happens inside these huge devices.

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Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows

A comprehensive survey of cat genes suggests that even after felines wandered into our lives, they remained largely unchanged for thousands of years.

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Growing Trees Is Helping Fight Poverty in Cameroon

In rural Africa, farmers are struggling to feed their families. The market price of the cash crops they depend on is fluctuating wildly on a monthly basis and there are no government subsidies to make up the loss of income. Zac Tchoundjeu is taking a grassroots approach to cutting this chain of poverty: empowering farmers with simple, powerful agroforestry techniques that they can bring back to their communities to improve their yield, market agency, and confidence.

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Man who punched kangaroo to save his dog calls police over animal-rights activist fear

The zookeeper who punched a kangaroo in the face to save his beloved pet dog called police to his home after animal-rights supporters called him "ruthless" and a "pathetic excuse for a human being" online. Greig Tonkins achieved internet fame when footage emerged of him punching the male kangaroo to defend his dog Max. The pair squared off during a boar-hunting trip organised for a young terminal cancer sufferer.

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How Do Sinkholes Form?

A sink hole opened up near Mar-a-Lago few few weeks ago just after Trump touched that orb in Saudi Arabia. Here's a great video explaining what causes them.

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The ATM at 50: how a hole in the wall changed the world

It all began with a newfangled bank machine in Enfield.

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Hundreds of US mayors endorse switch to 100% renewable energy by 2035

A bipartisan group of mayors from across the country has unanimously backed an ambitious commitment for US cities to run entirely on renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2035. As the US Conference of Mayors wrapped up in Miami Beach on Monday, leaders from more than 250 cities voted on symbolic resolutions pushing back against Donald Trump on climate change and immigration.

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A million bottles a minute: world's plastic binge 'as dangerous as climate change'

Exclusive: Annual consumption of plastic bottles is set to top half a trillion by 2021, far outstripping recycling efforts and jeopardising oceans, coastlines and other environments

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Coal on the rise in China, US, India after major 2016 drop

The world's biggest coal users — China, the United States and India — have boosted coal mining in 2017, in an abrupt departure from last year's record global decline for the heavily polluting fuel and a setback to efforts to rein in climate change emissions. Mining data reviewed by The Associated Press show that production through May is up by at least 121 million tons, or 6 percent, for the three countries compared to the same period last year. The change is most dramatic in the U.S., where coal mining rose 19 percent in the first five months of the year, according to U.S. Department of Energy data.

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Tick saliva 'gold mine' blocks killer heart condition

Oxford scientists are excited by the prospect of making a drug from a bug.

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2 lions, rescued from circuses, are poached in South Africa

Two lions who were rescued from circuses in Colombia and Peru last year and transported to South African wild have been killed by poachers in Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary.

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Spider Shoots 25 Metre Web - The Hunt - BBC Earth

Which marvel of nature can build a 2 metre Orb Web with a silk that ranks as the World's toughest natural fibre? - The answer is the Darwin's Bark Spider and this real life "Spider Woman", no bigger than a thumbnail has baffled scientists with her web of steel.

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New study confirms the oceans are warming rapidly

John Abraham: Although there’s some uncertainty in the distribution among Earth’s ocean basins, there’s no question that the ocean is heating rapidly. As humans put ever more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, the Earth heats up. These are the basics of global warming. But where does the heat go? How much extra heat is there? And how accurate are our measurements? These are questions that climate scientists ask.

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Birds use cigarette butts for chemical warfare against ticks

Urban house finches incorporate more fibres from cigarette butts into their nests if they have live ticks in them, suggesting the toxic chemicals in the butts may deter the parasites

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China breaks ground on first “Forest City” that fights air pollution

Stefano Boeri Architetti designed the first “Forest City” in China, which is now under construction Liuzhou, Guangxi Province.

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Over 3000 of Canada's Indigenous Lands are now on Google Maps

More than 3,000 Indigenous communities in Canada have been added to Google Maps and Google Earth. The move will allow the properties of 1.4 million indigenous people across the country, who have been historically excluded, to be represented in a base map.

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A quarter of rivers at risk as water is removed despite prospect of drought, official figures reveal

Nearly a quarter of all the rivers in England are at risk because of the vast amounts of water being removed for use by farms, businesses and people homes, according to a new report. Environment Agency figures obtained under freedom of information law by conservation charity WWF showed that 14 per cent of rivers were classed as over-abstracted – “meaning water removed is causing river to drop below levels required to sustain wildlife”.

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Ken Campbell: the palaeontologist whose name lives on in many fossils

One of Australia's most distinguished palaeontologists will be farewelled at a funeral in Canberra today.

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The ambitious plan to plant nearly 100,000 trees a day with drones

An Australian engineer is hoping to use drones to plant 1 billion trees every year to fight an unfolding global catastrophe. Burned or cleared forests release their stored carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and land restoration experts say technology must play a big part in addressing the problem.

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Removal of Yellowstone Grizzlies From Endangered List Ignites Controversy

To see how far we've come in restoring grizzly bear populations in and around Yellowstone National Park, consider: There are five times more grizzlies now than there were in 1975, when they were first protected under the Endangered Species Act. The area grizzlies roam has increased by half. And conflicts with bears attracted to landowners’ chicken coops now pose a greater threat than hunting.

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Deadly heat waves set to surge due to climate change

Killer heat due to global warming means much of the planet faces rising fatalities, a study shows. By 2100, almost half of people on the planet will be at risk of heat-related illness or death - even if emissions fall.

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‘It came up from behind them and attacked’: Biologists ‘courageous’ in battle against bear

Erin Johnson, 27, of Anchorage, was killed Monday by a black bear while she was doing contract work for Pogo Mine in Interior Alaska.This was the second fatal bear attack in a two day span.

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Texas Is Too Windy and Sunny for Old Energy Companies to Make Money

In a windsurfers’ paradise, turbines capture gusts that pick up at exactly the right time - or the wrong time, if you're trying to sell natural gas.

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How to Build the Perfect Sandcastle--According to Science

A sedimentologist weighs in on beach selection, tools and the perfect sand-to-water ratio

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Anti-poaching drive brings Siberia’s tigers back from brink

A WWF appeal aims to highlight the threat of habitat destruction and climate change on wild populations

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12 billion gallons of water pour into Lake Tahoe amid this week's heat wave

The process of the Sierra Nevada spring snow melt sped up this week as a heat wave brought triple-digit temperatures to parts of the Western United States. What's more, water managers have been releasing water from the lake into the Truckee River for the past 120 consecutive days to make room for snow-melt runoff.

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America’s hungriest wind and solar power users: big companies

Major U.S. corporations such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and General Motors Co (GM.N) have become some of America’s biggest buyers of renewable energy, driving growth in an industry seen as key to helping the United States cut carbon emissions.

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If You Can’t Ban Cars Downtown, Just Take Away The Parking Spaces

Oslo had a plan to lower its emissions by drastically limit car travel in its center. Now you can drive, but it might not be worth it.

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A surprisingly simple explanation for the shape of bird eggs

Researchers crack a centuries-old mystery

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Exxon, Stephen Hawking, greens, and Reagan’s advisors agree on a carbon tax

What do ExxonMobil, Stephen Hawking, the Nature Conservancy, and Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of Treasury and Chief of Staff have in common? All have signed on as founding members to the Climate Leadership Council, which has met with the White House to propose a revenue-neutral carbon tax policy.

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Watch: Elephants Rescue Their Baby From a Pool

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Massive Antarctic Ice Shelf Days From Breaking Off

The imminent carving of the vast iceberg is "one of the most dramatic displays of the destruction Exxon and their peers in the fossil fuel industry have unleashed upon the planet."

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Vancouver Steps Towards a Ban on Coffee Cups and Foam Containers

With a public consultation taking place over the summer, Vancouver is looking to reduce the amount of coffee cups, plastic bags and various foam take-out containers in city dumps. The consultation will outline the various strategies available to reduce single-use waste and bans are not being ruled out.

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Magnitude 6.8 earthquake off of Guatemala's Pacific coast, USGS says

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck off of Guatemala's Pacific coast Thursday, the US Geological Survey reports. The quake was recorded at about 24 miles (38 km) from the city of Puerto San Jose, according to the USGS.

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