NYC’s Whale Population is Making a Comeback - Here’s Why.

The once struggling New York Harbor whale population is now rebounding with water clean-up initiatives and these faithful citizen scientists’ efforts.

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Doggone it! How an 18,000-year-old puppy could change everything we know about dogs

Dogor was two months old when he died and has been well preserved in the Siberian ice. But is he an early modern wolf – or one of the world’s very oldest domesticated dogs?

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Photographer Captures Moment ‘Curious’ Squirrel Stops To Smell Flowers

A photographer in Vienna, Austria, captured the heartwarming moment when a small ground squirrel stopped to smell and hug a yellow daisy flower.

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This winemaker is using 'sunscreen' to protect your wine from global warming

Jeff Burch is not going to let climate change get in the way of a good glass of Chardy — and in the process, he has had to get creative.

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We Discovered Toilet Sloths And Found Hell

We have seen the depths of hell, and it is a sloth. A cheerful-faced, slow-moving two-toed sloth, peering out of its comfortable position, snugly ensconced in... a human toilet.

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European parliament declares 'climate emergency'

The European Parliament voted on Thursday to declare a "climate and environment emergency" in a symbolic gesture just ahead of the latest UN global crisis summit. The legislature, sitting in Strasbourg, backed the motion by a comfortable 429 to 225 majority, increasing pressure on EU capitals and the European Commission to take more drastic action.

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Climate emergency: world 'may have crossed tipping points’

Warning of ‘existential threat to civilisation’ as impacts lead to cascade of unstoppable events

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Then and now: Swiss glacier photos show impact of global warming

On the hairpin bend of a Swiss mountain pass, a Victorian-era hotel built for tourists to admire the Rhone Glacier has been abandoned now that the ice has retreated nearly 1.2 miles uphill. Where mighty glaciers once spilled into Swiss valleys like frozen rivers of ice, a residue of gray scree and boulders remains, spliced through with raging streams.

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‘Generation Greta’: Angry youths put heat on climate talks

It’s safe to say that anyone flying to this year’s global climate conference in Madrid had better have a watertight excuse if they meet Greta Thunberg. The Swedish teen has set a high standard for government officials, scientists and environmental campaigners attending the Dec. 2-13 talks by deciding to sail back across the Atlantic following a last-minute switch of venue from Chile.

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'Bags for life' making plastic problem worse, say campaigners

Plastic “bags for life” should be banned or raised in price, campaigners say, as new figures reveal a surge in the bags is fuelling a rise in the plastic packaging footprint of leading supermarkets. Despite high profile promises by the country’s best known supermarkets to tackle the amount of plastic waste they create, their plastic footprint continues to rise, according to research from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace.

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“Exceedingly rare” plant species face increased chances of extinction

According to new research nearly 40 percent of global land plant species can be categorized as very rare, and these species are most at risk of extinction as climate and land use continues to change.

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Official report questions Modi's toilet revolution

India's prime minister has said defecating in the open has ended in rural India - but is that true?

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Stray dog cuddles kittens in snow keeping them alive on freezing night

A stray dog was found keeping a litter of five kittens alive by cuddling the newborns, who had been abandoned in the snow on a freezing cold night in Canada. A passerby who spotted the dog and kittens alerted the Pet and Wildlife Rescue shelter in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, who rushed to the scene.

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Losing Nemo: Clownfish 'cannot adapt to climate change' due to their specific mating habits, scientists say

The star of Pixar's blockbuster "Finding Nemo" may be about to vanish again - this time for good - as its peculiar mating habits put it at risk from climate change, scientists said on Tuesday. They observed the vibrantly coloured clownfish - which live in anemones - for more than 10 years around Kimbe Island off eastern Papua New Guinea.

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For the First Time, Scientists Record the Slow Beat of a Blue Whale's Heart

The largest heart on earth — a 400-pound blood-pumping machine — beats about 13 times a minute. That’s according to scientists' first recordings of the heart of a blue whale. The research team documented the rhythms thanks to a few suction cups that kept a heart rate monitor attached to a whale swimming and diving around California's Monterey Bay.

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Greenhouse gases surge to record in 2018, exceeding 10-year average rate: U.N

Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere hit a new record in 2018, exceeding the average yearly increase of the last decade and reinforcing increasingly damaging weather patterns, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday.

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Brazil’s deforestation is exploding—and 2020 will be worse

The Brazilian government acknowledges the spike but says it’s the continuation of a 7-year trend

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While We Worry About Honeybees, Other Pollinators Are Disappearing

While We Worry About Honeybees, Other Pollinators Are Disappearing

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Terrified of Climate Change? You Might Have Eco-Anxiety

Under the bright white lights of a central London exhibition space, a few dozen people are sorting themselves into groups. An instructor tells those that feel extremely worried about climate change to go to the far end of the room. Those that are less worried should stay closer to her. Moments later, she is mostly alone. Thirty feet away, strangers awkwardly cram together, signaling that they suffer “eco-anxiety.”

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Is this the beginning of the end of coal?

The fuel that powered the industrial revolution may be in decline at last. This year looks set to see the largest fall in electricity production from coal on record, according to a new report. The reduction is estimated to be more than the power generated from coal in Germany, Spain and the UK combined.

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How to erase 100 years of carbon emissions? Plant trees.

Increasing the Earth’s forests by an area the size of the United States would cut atmospheric carbon dioxide 25 percent.

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This Trash Eating Boat Can Clean Up The Rivers

Today we are facing so many environmental problems out of which one is water pollution. We are throwing away all the garbage directly into our lakes, rivers and oceans. We just can’t imagine how much waste is already present in our water bodies and therefore in the end we have to rely on new technologies and devices which can help us in cleaning our lakes and oceans.

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The Australian government tackles climate change threats

Approximately 75 Victoria Police and 150 ADF personnel, including elements of the Army Reserve’s 4th Brigade, participated in the exercise held at the AGL Loy Yang Power Station facility in the La Trobe Valley.

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AI Could Replace Chemical Testing on Animals

Most consumers would be dismayed with how little we know about the majority of chemicals. Only 3 percent of industrial chemicals – mostly drugs and pesticides – are comprehensively tested. Most of the 80,000 to 140,000 chemicals in consumer products have not been tested at all or just examined superficially to see what harm they may do locally, at the site of contact and at extremely high doses.

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Scientists find a place on Earth where there is no life

Living beings, especially microorganisms, have a surprising ability to adapt to the most extreme environments on our planet, but there are still places where they cannot live. European researchers have confirmed the absence of microbial life in hot, saline, hyperacid ponds in the Dallol geothermal field in Ethiopia.

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Most plastic is not getting recycled, and AI robots could be a solution

Humans have enlisted nearly 100 AI-powered robots in North American to come to the rescue for something humans are terrible at: recycling. Even when we try to do it right, we're often making things worse; About one out of every four of the things people throw into the recycling bin aren't recyclable at all.

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Voters want more climate-change debate, but the Democratic event gave less than 10 minutes to the issue

That’s how the numbers stacked up during last night’s 2020 presidential debate for the disappointed founders at Our Daily Planet, a National Geographic and Walton Family Foundation-backed environmental policy crib sheet circulated every morning.

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China’s Deadly Air Pollution Is Also Costing Billions in Solar Efficiency

China is leading the way on renewable energy, having installed half the world's solar panels in 2017. But its transformative economic growth fueled by coal and other fossil fuels and its outsized manufacturing sector have coughed up so much air pollution that it has blocked adequate sunlight from reaching its solar panels, according to a new study published this week in Nature Energy.

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Designer baby revolution could be less than two years away, research suggests

The creation of so-called designer babies could begin within two years, according to new research. Dr Kevin Smith, a bioethicist from Abertay University in Dundee, has published analysis that claims the risks of gene editing are now low enough to warrant its use with human embryos.

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Open water replaces sea ice as the autumn norm in Western Arctic

Open water has become the November norm in the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska. Instead of thick, years-old ice, researchers are studying waves and how they may pummel the northern Alaska coastline.

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The Vegetarian’s Dilemma: Do Fish Qualify as Meat?

John Cleese, a co-founder of the British comedy sketch group Monty Python, once quipped “If God did not intend for us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?” But are all animals made of meat? According to the 19th-century anthropologist Peter Lund Simmonds. the answer is yes.

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What America Lost When It Lost the Bison

By migrating in huge herds, bison behave like a force of nature, engineering and intensifying waves of spring greenery that other grazers rely on.

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Nanomaterials in wastewater have toxic effects on crustaceans and fish

You may not always think about it when you do your laundry or flush the toilet, but whatever you eat, wear or apply on your skin ends up in wastewater and eventually reaches the environment. The use of nanoparticles in consumer products like textiles, foods and personal care products is increasing. What is so special about nanoparticles is their tiny size: One nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

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Companies that fail to tackle climate change will be delisted from the London Stock Exchange, Labour announces

Companies that fail to act on the climate change they cause will be axed from the stock exchange, under radical Labour plans. John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, pledged his government would ensure firms are “pulling their weight” to tackle the “existential threat” to the planet.

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It’s getting windier and that could be good news for renewable energy

An increase in wind speed in recent years is good news for renewable energy production. Average global wind speed had been dropping since 1978, but this trend has reversed over the past decade. Zhenzhong Zeng at Princeton University and his colleagues analysed data on wind speed recorded at ground weather stations across North America, Europe and Asia between 1978 and 2017.

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Deadly virus spreads among marine mammals as Arctic ice melts

When sea otters in Alaska were diagnosed with phocine distemper virus (PDV) in 2004, scientists were confused. The pathogen in the Morbillivirus genus that contains viruses like measles had then only…

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Cat put in 'solitary confinement' for freeing other cats from Texas shelter

A sneaky feline from Texas was put in solitary confinement because he kept freeing his cat friends from the shelter.

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Pope Francis considers introducing new 'ecological sin'

Pope Francis is considering introducing 'ecological sins' in a new bid to battle climate change. Speaking in Rome on Friday, Pope Francis said it's 'a duty' to introduce the new sin to the Catholic Church's teachings as a way to protect 'our common home'.

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Why the world is running out of sand

It may be little more than grains of weathered rock, and can be found on deserts and beaches around the world, but sand is also the world’s second most consumed natural resource.

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Indonesia's food chain turns toxic as plastic waste exports flood in

Study of chicken egg samples reveals presence of dangerous chemical compounds around areas where waste is dumped

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Delhi suffocates under toxic smog but millions go without masks

A thick grey smog choked New Delhi for the fifth day Saturday, adding to a mounting pollution health crisis, but retired naval commander 

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Power to the people: how suburban solar could become the Uber of the energy grid

Power to the people might remain a political pipe dream, but changes taking place in the energy market across Australia are making suburban homeowners the unlikely disruptors in an Uber-style revolution that promises to change how we all live.

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California landfills are belching high levels of climate-warming methane

Airborne remote sensing spots the Golden State’s biggest emitters of the potent greenhouse gas from the sky.

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‘Insect apocalypse’ poses risk to all life on Earth, conservationists warn

Report claims 400,000 insect species face extinction amid heavy use of pesticides

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IBM hopes to change weather forecasting around the globe using big data and a new supercomputer

The system is called GRAF, or Global High Resolution Atmospheric Forecasting, and will have many applications globally for governments and industries including airlines, agriculture and retail.

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Italy: Venice council flooded after 'NO' vote on climate change measures

Oops. Awkward.

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Fracking may indeed be causing earthquakes in Texas, according to UT study

Since Texas earthquake rates first picked up in 2008, academic scientists, regulators and oil and gas companies have publicly agreed on one thing

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Greta Thunberg leaves US with simple climate crisis message: vote

As Greta Thunberg departs the US to sail across the Atlantic for the second time in a few months, she is leaving behind a simple message for those who care about the climate crisis: you must vote.

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The most destructive hurricanes are hitting US more often

Big, destructive hurricanes are hitting the U.S. three times more frequently than they did a century ago, according to a new study. Experts generally measure a hurricane’s destruction by adding up how much damage it did to people and cities. That can overlook storms that are powerful, but that hit only sparsely populated areas.

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If the US military is facing up to the climate crisis, shouldn't we all?

We have heard from the scientists on climate change, with their meticulous data on ecosystem degradation and species loss. We have heard from the climate deniers, with their desperate attempts to deploy countervailing arguments. Both groups have mobilized substantial blocs of voters in pivotal countries, producing gridlock in global efforts to slow the pace of global warming.

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