Earth

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. Life

    In one lake deep under Antarctica’s ice, microbes feast on ancient carbon

    Microorganisms living in a lake beneath the ice sheet in West Antarctica feed on ocean carbon that was deposited 6,000 years ago.

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  4. Life

    Ancient giant eruptions may have seeded nitrogen needed for life

    A new study bolsters the idea that on the young Earth volcanic lightning may have provided some materials that made it possible for life to emerge.

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  5. Oceans

    Satellite data reveal nearly 20,000 previously unknown deep-sea mountains

    By looking for tiny bumps in sea level caused by the gravity of subsurface mountains, researchers have roughly doubled the number of known seamounts.

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  6. 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.

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  7. Plants

    Ultrasound reveals trees’ drought-survival secrets

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

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  8. 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.

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  9. 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.

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  10. 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.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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