Environment

Every day, about one quadrillion gallons of water are silently pumped from the ground to the treetops. Earth's plant life accomplishes this staggering feat using only sunlight. It takes energy to lift all this liquid, but just how much was an open question until this year.... Read more

A ferocious heat wave scorching the western United States could finally begin to wane in the coming days, forecasters said Wednesday, but they warned of dangerous fire conditions as howling winds sweep through the bone-dry region.... Read more

Wildfires, characterized by unplanned, uncontrolled, and unpredictable fires erupting in areas such as forests, grasslands, and prairies, have recently grown in frequency and intensity. Likely resulting from climate change effects, wildfires are increasingly impacting ecosystems and human lives. While wildfires are considered ecologically beneficial, there have been rising concerns over... Read more

A growing number of Native American households in Nevada have no access to indoor plumbing, a condition known as "plumbing poverty," according to a new study by a team from DRI and the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities.... Read more

Hurricane Kay gathered strength in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday and was on course to bring strong winds and heavy rain to Mexico's Baja California Peninsula, forecasters said.... Read more

The Dutch city of Haarlem is set to become the first in the world to ban advertisements for most meat because of its impact on climate change, officials said Wednesday.... Read more

In the summer of 2020, an extreme flash drought event broke out over the southeastern coastal region of China, which had serious impacts on local agriculture and the environment. It was identified as one of the top 10 extreme weather and climate events of 2020 in China. Under climate warming,... Read more

In the past 50 years, the oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat caused by our carbon dioxide emissions, with one ocean absorbing the vast majority.... Read more

Climate change is putting the availability of biomass fuels and technologies—a vital alternative to fossil fuels—at risk, according to new research.... Read more

The North China Plain (NCP), one of the world's most polluted regions, is frequently engulfed by severe haze in the cold season, which has aroused broad public concern because of the adverse impacts on air quality, atmospheric visibility, and human health.... Read more

The meteorite that wiped out Earth's dinosaurs instantly ignited forest wildfires up to thousands of kilometers from its impact zone, scientists have discovered.... Read more

The monsoon flooding in Pakistan has been referred to as a "monsoon on steroids" and described as a "monster monsoon." These names reflect the wide devastation it has caused.... Read more

The U.K.'s new prime minister, Liz Truss, has pledged to suspend green levies on energy bills and look for "better ways to deliver our net zero targets." Despite a record-breaking heat wave plus wildfires, droughts and floods worldwide, neither contender for the Conservative Party leadership felt the urge, as David... Read more

The 2019/20 wildfires in Australia transported more smoke into the atmosphere than observed ever before anywhere in the world. In the so-called Black Summer, three times as many particles reached high air layers as in the previous record wildfires in Canada during summer 2017. Two analyses led by the Leibniz... Read more

An anticipated rise in the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves and an associated increase in wildfires this century is likely to worsen air quality, harming human health and ecosystems. The interaction between pollution and climate change will impose an additional "climate penalty" for hundreds of millions of people, according... Read more