Climate

Climate

Why the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season is especially hard to predict

It’s hard to know how busy this year’s Atlantic hurricane season will be, thanks to a rarely observed combination of ocean and climate conditions.

Environment

This house was built partly from recycled diapers

Disposable diapers can replace nearly a third of the materials used in load-bearing structures, offering a potential path to more affordable housing.

Plants

Soil microbes that survived tough climates can help young trees do the same

Trees grown in soil with microbes that have survived drought and high or low temperatures have a better shot at survival when facing the same conditions.

Environment

More than half of the world’s largest lakes are drying up

Satellite data from 1992 to 2020 reveal that 53 percent of the world’s largest freshwater bodies shrank during that period while only 24 percent grew.

Climate

There’s good and bad news with California’s electric vehicle program

The electric vehicle program is reducing carbon dioxide emissions but also shifting the pollution burden to the state’s most disadvantaged communities.

Climate

Thawing permafrost may unleash industrial pollution across the Arctic

As the frozen ground warms due to climate change, industrial pollutants could flow free from thousands of sites across the Arctic.

Plants

Ultrasound reveals trees’ drought-survival secrets

Scientists used ultrasound sensors and electrical probes to reveal how drought affects the tissues of living trees.

Earth

A massive cavern beneath a West Antarctic glacier is teeming with life

A subglacial river has carved out the cavern beneath the Kamb Ice Stream, a West Antarctic glacier, and may be supplying nutrients necessary for life.

Climate

Methane may not warm the Earth quite as much as previously thought

Methane absorbs both longwave and shortwave radiation, with competing effects on climate, a study finds. The gas remains a potent warmer of the planet.

Earth

The Great Salt Lake is shrinking. What can we do to stop it?

A dropping lake level affects agriculture, public health and the environment — but water conservation can halt the decline.

Climate

The summer of 2021 was the Pacific Northwest’s hottest in a millennium

Tree ring data from the Pacific Northwest reveal that the region’s average summer temperature in 2021 was the highest since at least the year 950.

Climate

‘Flash droughts’ are growing increasingly common

Droughts are forming faster more often in much of the world due to climate change, a new study finds.