Environment

Environment
Wind, Not Just Current, Decides Where Ocean Plastic Washes Ashore
Most of the plastic that enters the ocean does not stay at sea. It comes back to land, washing onto beaches, piling up in mangroves, fouling the same coastlines it drifted away from. The hard…
By Anna Kotlyar1w ago3 min read
Environment
How an Invasive Beaver Turns a Sub-Antarctic Forest Into a Methane Source
At the bottom of the world, on the islands of the Fuegian Archipelago, a rodent from another hemisphere has been reshaping the forest for the better part of a century. The North American beaver was…
By Andreja Jezernik1w ago5 min read
Environment
East Asia's Worst Downpours Are Intensifying About Three Times Faster Than the Rest
Averages are reassuring, and that is exactly the problem. When people talk about rain getting heavier in a warming world, the mental image is usually a whole distribution nudging up a notch:…
By Oli Kotyk1w ago3 min read
Science
In Earth's Greatest Extinction, Metabolism Decided Who Lived and Who Died
Two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, the oceans nearly emptied. The Permian-Triassic extinction (geologists call it the Great Dying, and the name is not hyperbole) erased something like 96…
By Anna Kotlyar1w ago3 min read
Environment
Most Big U.S. Solar Farms Are Being Built on Good Farmland
The land that is best for growing crops turns out to be attractive for another reason: it is flat, open, cleared, close to roads and power lines, and often bathed in the strong sunshine that also…
By Andreja Jezernik1w ago2 min read
Environment
Amazon Trees That Weathered the 2010 Drought Hint at Which Forests Bend Rather Than Break
In 2010, a severe drought gripped the Amazon, one of a run of exceptional dry spells this century that have tested the world's largest rainforest. Droughts like that are grim to live through and, for…
By Olga Schmidt2w ago3 min read
Environment
After Net-Zero, Earth Cools: An Observational Constraint Settles a Long-Running Model Fight
Picture the planet at the instant the last tonne of carbon dioxide is neutralized. The furnace has been switched off. The obvious question is whether the room now stays warm, keeps heating, or begins…
By Olga Schmidt2w ago4 min read
Environment
Can the North Atlantic Tell Us What European Summers Will Do Years Ahead?
There is a frustrating gap in what climate science can and cannot tell you. Ask whether Europe's summers will keep warming over the coming decades, and the models answer with confidence. Ask what the…
By Oli Kotyk2w ago3 min read
Environment
The Arctic's Coldest Months Are Becoming Its Biggest Carbon Problem
For most of the year the far North does its climate work in the dark. Long after the growing season ends and the last flux of summer photosynthesis fades, the soil beneath the snow keeps breathing:…
By Oli Kotyk3w ago4 min read
Environment
A Laser on the Space Station Is Watching Congo's Forests Grow Back
Ask how long it takes a rainforest to grow back and the honest answer has always been slippery. You can count the trees. You can weigh the carbon. But a mature tropical forest is not just a stand of…
By Anna Kotlyar3w ago4 min read
Environment
Heatwaves May Be Changing Shape, Not Just Getting Hotter
A heatwave is almost always reduced to a thermometer reading: a record broken, a threshold crossed, a number in the headline. But no single figure captures what a heatwave actually is: a whole…
By Olga Schmidt3w ago4 min read
Environment
Where You Replant a Forest May Matter as Much as How Much
A rainforest is, among other things, a machine for moving water. Roots pull moisture from deep in the soil, leaves breathe it into the air, and the vapor drifts downwind to fall again as rain…
By Olga Schmidt3w ago2 min read

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Environment

Wind, Not Just Current, Decides Where Ocean Plastic Washes Ashore

How an Invasive Beaver Turns a Sub-Antarctic Forest Into a Methane Source

East Asia's Worst Downpours Are Intensifying About Three Times Faster Than the Rest

In Earth's Greatest Extinction, Metabolism Decided Who Lived and Who Died

Most Big U.S. Solar Farms Are Being Built on Good Farmland

Amazon Trees That Weathered the 2010 Drought Hint at Which Forests Bend Rather Than Break

After Net-Zero, Earth Cools: An Observational Constraint Settles a Long-Running Model Fight

Can the North Atlantic Tell Us What European Summers Will Do Years Ahead?

The Arctic's Coldest Months Are Becoming Its Biggest Carbon Problem

A Laser on the Space Station Is Watching Congo's Forests Grow Back

Heatwaves May Be Changing Shape, Not Just Getting Hotter

Where You Replant a Forest May Matter as Much as How Much