World's population could plummet to 6 billion by the end of the century, study suggests

Population growth could grind to a halt by 2050, before decreasing to as little as 6 billion humans on Earth in 2100, a new analysis of birth trends has revealed. The study, commissioned by the nonprofit organization The Club of Rome, predicts that if current trends continue, the world's population, which is currently 7.96 billion(opens in new tab), will peak at 8.6 billion in the middle of the century before declining by nearly 2 billion before the century's end.

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A surprising food may have been a staple of the real Paleo diet: rotten meat

The realization that people have long eaten putrid foods has archaeologists rethinking what Neandertals and other ancient hominids ate.

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Rarely Seen Wombat 'Sideways' Sex Shows Just How Wild Animal Reproduction Can Get

If you look at where wombats deposit their poo, you realize they must be able to perform some surprising acrobatics.

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Sea levels are rising — and it's going to get worse. Here's how some communities are adapting

Thirty percent of Americans live in a community near a coastline. While those people don't have the power to unilaterally solve the underlying problem of climate change, some communities are now grappling with how to adapt.

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California’s Atmospheric Rivers Are Getting Worse

As climate change makes storms warmer and wetter, the state’s flood control system is struggling to keep up.

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Monarch butterflies lose sanctuary in Mexico as climate changes

The population of endangered monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico's Michoacan dropped by 22% in just one year.

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At least 25 are dead after a rare, long-lasting tornado tore through Mississippi

A rare, long-track tornado left a trail of devastation across western Mississippi on Friday night — killing at least 25 people, tearing buildings and leaving thousands of homes without power. At least one person also died in storms in Alabama.

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Berlin votes on tighter climate goals in test of Germans commitment to change

Berlin votes on Sunday on making the city climate neutral by 2030, in a binding referendum that will force the new conservative local government to invest heavily in renewable energy, building efficiency and public transportation.

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The meat industry blocked the IPCC’s attempt to recommend a plant-based diet

It’s no secret that climate change discourse is shrouded in obfuscation, disinformation, greenwashing and lies, both outright and of omission. But a recent leak of a draft of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released on March 20 has been particularly enlightening when it comes to just how much how delegations negotiate, watered down, and delete scientists’ findings.

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Exclusive: Inside a Controversial Startup's Risky Attempt to Control Our Climate

Mexico pledged to ban geoengineering after Make Sunsets' attempt last year. The company just launched more balloons—this time in the U.S.

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Letting Go Of Our Love Of Lawns

In the face of a drier future, that iconic piece of Americana is on its way out in Southern California.

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This Incredible Flower Makes Fake Flies, And We Finally Know How

A flower's ability to mimic the sexually attractive traits of pollinators to lure them to its nectar has long fascinated scientists.

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Best plant identification apps for mobile in 2023

Use the five best plant identification apps we tested to identify plants along your trail walks, keep away from harmful plants while camping or set up your dream garden

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Trapdoor spider: New giant species found in Australia

Australian researchers have discovered a super-sized species of trapdoor spiders found only in Queensland. The females of this rare species can live for over 20 years in the wild and grow up to 5cm long - large in trapdoor spider terms. The males grow up to 3cm. Unfortunately, much of its habitat has been lost due to land clearing, making it likely to be an endangered species, scientists said.

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New Law the Beginning of the End of Animal Research?

It's called a "liver-chip." Researchers grew human liver cells on a small chip-like device, hoping to use it to predict when a drug might cause liver injury. Not only did it do so — flagging a set of small molecule drugs with known hepatoxicity with 87% specificity — but it also outperformed conventional animal models.

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UN warns against 'vampiric' global water use

A United Nations report has warned of a looming global water crisis and an "imminent risk" of shortages due to overconsumption and climate change. The world is "blindly travelling a dangerous path" of "vampiric overconsumption and overdevelopment", the report says. Its publication comes before the first major UN water summit since 1977.

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Microsoft says its new developer tools can reduce Xbox’s climate impact

Xbox maker says power-saving changes "can be entirely imperceptible to the gamer."

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'Horrifying' Plastic Rocks Emerge in Remote Island Paradise

​There are few places on Earth as isolated as Trindade island, a volcanic outcrop a three- to four-day boat trip off the coast of Brazil.

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Black buzzards are circling New York City in sightings that 'would have been unheard of' 30 years ago, ornithologists say

Andrew Farnsworth, a researcher at Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, told The New York Times more than 300 sightings have been recorded in a year.

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Brazilian researchers find 'terrifying' plastic rocks on remote island

The geology of Brazil's volcanic Trindade Island has fascinated scientists for years, but the discovery of rocks made from plastic debris in this remote turtle refuge is sparking alarm.

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World’s scientists say 1.5C still achievable but ‘humanity on thin ice’

After five years of meetings, reports and debate, the world’s scientific community has delivered an ultimatum on the climate crisis: “Act now to secure a liveable sustainable future for all.” The so-called “synthesis report” was published on Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a body made up of hundreds of international scientists from a dizzying array of disciplines.

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World is on brink of climate calamity, definitive U.N. climate report warns

Scientists warn that the world is on the brink of dangerous, irreversible warming in a definitive U.N. climate report and called for more aggressive actions to avert catastrophe.

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What’s the Real Cost of Mezcal?

Communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, are striving to produce mezcal sustainably—but soaring demand from across the border makes it tough.

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‘A wake-up call’: total weight of wild mammals less than 10% of humanity’s

The total weight of Earth’s wild land mammals – from elephants to bisons and from deer to tigers – is now less than 10% of the combined tonnage of men, women and children living on the planet. A study by scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, published this month, concludes that wild land mammals alive today have a total mass of 22m tonnes. By comparison, humanity now weighs in at a total of around 390m tonnes.

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In the northern California snow, stranded cows are getting emergency hay drops

Rancher Robert Puga's cattle had been stranded and starving in the snow for weeks. "We've never seen record snow like this, ever. And we're losing cattle left and right," Puga said. His ranch is in the far north of California in Trinity County, in an area that's been hit especially hard by the state's recent wave of unprecedented snowfall.

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Biden Blocks Alaska Oil Drilling While Approving Controversial Willow Project

President Joe Biden has announced new plans to limit onshore oil and gas drilling in Alaska and ban drilling in the Arctic Ocean, even as his administration approved the massive Willow oil project, which was vehemently opposed by climate activists and many members of Alaska’s Indigenous communities.

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EPA proposes new rule targeting 'forever chemicals' in drinking water

The Biden administration announced a proposal Tuesday to reduce harmful chemicals in drinking water, the first time the federal government has suggested setting such a standard for the so-called forever chemicals. The Environmental Protection Agency's proposal would limit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, by establishing legally enforceable levels for six manufactured chemicals that are known to contaminate drinking water and pose significant health risks, including cancer, even at low levels.

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Chichen Itza: New area discovered at Mexican historic site

Archaeologists have revealed a group of structures discovered at the famed Mayan Chichen Itza archaeological site in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, believed to have been part of a housing complex inhabited by the elite of the sacred city founded in the 5th Century AD.

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How a Lone Researcher Faced Down Millions of Army Ants on the March in Ecuador

Renowned entomologist Frank Nischk remembers when the determined insects tried to invade a field station. One afternoon, I was sitting on the veranda at the small research station in the reserve. I was alone, because my botanical colleagues were busy with their work in the forest. I was sorting and preparing my collection: dried crickets, the fruits of two weeks’ work in the cloud forest. Then I heard a swell of rustling and murmuring, and knew immediately what was moving toward me.

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These companies want to go beyond batteries to store energy

Physical energy storage could be a cheap and long-lasting way to stabilize the grid.

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The Broken Stones of Monkeys Look Uncannily Like Something We Used to Make

We humans may no longer have tails, but perhaps we have more in common with our smaller primate relatives than we thought.

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Fox hunting club that first met in the 1700s holds last meet after new law | CNN

One of Scotland’s oldest fox hunts has come to an end after 252 years following the introduction of new law on hunting. The Hunting with Dogs bill, which went into effect earlier this week after being passed in January, outlaws hunting and killing wild mammals using packs of dogs except in limited circumstances.

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Plastic pollution in oceans has reached 'unprecedented' levels in 15 years

Plastic pollution in the world's oceans has reached "unprecedented levels" over the past 15 years, a new study has found, calling for a legally binding international treaty to stop the harmful waste.

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This is what years of tourist rides do to an elephant

Elephants may be known for their size and strength, but tourists who ride on their backs can still do great harm, as this photo shared by a wildlife rescue group in Thailand shows.

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Al Gore warns it would be ‘recklessly irresponsible’ to allow Alaska oil drilling plan

Ex-vice-president says new projects ‘are a recipe for climate chaos’ ahead of Biden administration’s decision on Willow development

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Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - Save A Spider Day - March 14th, 2023| Creature Feature!

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Atlanta’s “Cop City” and the Vital Fight for Urban Forests

Twenty-three more protesters were charged with domestic terrorism this week in the ongoing controversy over “Cop City,” the site of Atlanta’s proposed 381-acre police training center in the Weelaunee Forest. The project, situated in a lush watershed surrounded by a largely Black neighborhood, is supported by the private Atlanta Police Foundation, which is backed by many of the usual right-wing funders, including Home Depot and the Koch brothers.

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The first wiring map of an insect's brain hints at incredible complexity

Researchers have mapped the more than 500,000 connections in the intricate brain of a fruit fly larva. This map, they say, could help scientists figure out how learning changes the human brain, too.

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Breakthrough as eggs made from male mice cells

A Japanese researcher has told a major genetics conference that he has created eggs from the cells of male mice. The research, still in its early stages, involved turning male XY sex chromosomes into female XX ones.

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In Scramble for Clean Energy, Europe Is Turning to North Africa

In its quest for green energy, Europe is looking to North Africa, where vast solar and wind farms are proliferating and plans call for submarine cables that will carry electricity as far as Britain. But this rush for clean power is raising serious environmental concerns.

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Climate change: New idea for sucking up CO2 from air shows promise

A new way of sucking carbon from the air is up to three times more effective than current technology.

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Alligator allegedly taken from Texas zoo as an egg or hatchling has been returned nearly 20 years later, officials say | CNN

A nearly 8-foot alligator that allegedly was taken from a Texas zoo nearly 20 years ago as an egg or a hatchling has been returned to the facility after it was spotted living illegally in the backyard of a home near Austin, officials say.

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Virtually Nowhere in the World Is Safe From Toxic Air Pollution

Until the world’s biggest polluters decide to reduce their toxic footprints, the world will bear the brunt of their effects.

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Oil CEOs Should Be Barred From Global Climate Summits, Not Running Them

The Chief Executive of the twelfth largest oil producer – Sultan Al Jaber of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) – has been appointed as president of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) COP28, the biggest climate change conference that will take place in November, 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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Florida man finds giant clam estimated to be 214 years old

The clam was born the same years as Abraham Lincoln, and it was given a very apropos name.

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CP Rail taps Alberta manufacturer to increase fleet of hydrogen-powered trains

An Alberta manufacturing company is nearly finished preparing a second hydrogen-powered locomotive for CP Rail with the hope of signing a deal with the railway to produce more of the train engines in the years to come.

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Tesla plans to offer a $30 monthly subscription for unlimited overnight home charging.

It will launch in Texas because the windy nights help generate power. The subscription was a way to incentivize customers to charge their vehicles at home using a source of renewable energy, Tesla's Drew Baglino said.

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Soaring SUV sales make it harder to hit climate goals

SUV sales soared in 2022, a trend that makes it much harder to reach global climate goals, experts say. And while car buyers flocked to electric SUVs along with their gas-guzzling counterparts, supersize EVs pose their own environmental challenges.

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Overconsumption by the rich must be tackled, says acting UN biodiversity chief

Governments and businesses must start implementing this decade’s deal to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems as soon as possible, the acting UN biodiversity chief has said, urging rich nations to tackle overconsumption of the planet’s resources.

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Giant flying bug found at Arkansas Walmart turns out to be "super-rare" Jurassic-era insect

The giant bug was found during a trip to Walmart in 2012: "I put it in my hand and did the rest of my shopping with it between my fingers. I got home...and promptly forgot about it for almost a decade."

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