As a 900-mile oil pipeline project in East Africa nears completion, its ecological risks are coming into focus. The pipeline is set to come online despite the reported abuse of people living in its path, and a campaign that rallied major banks against it.
A new study shows how a group of sperm whales in the eastern Mediterranean developed its own distinct dialect.
Rising temperatures are set to drive up emissions from wildfires, fermenting wetlands, and melting permafrost, but these “feedback loops” are poorly captured in climate models. Scientists are racing to make sense of these emissions to gauge how much warming may lie ahead.
“I think that attracting, hiring, and retaining great scientists to the EPA after this administration is going to be incredibly difficult.” In an interview with Elizabeth Kolbert, a former EPA researcher details the agency's assault on science.
Lost to science for more than 70 years, the black-lored waxbill was only recently rediscovered in a marshy region of the Congo. Now, researchers have published the first clear photographs of the bird ever taken in the wild.
While China used coal to power its industrialization, India is turning to solar to meet its growing energy needs. Though India faces major hurdles — a rickety grid, a lack of storage — its solar buildout could be a model for other emerging economies.
The decades-long effort to restore the Florida Everglades marked a major milestone this year. The Army Corps of Engineers has restored the flow of water to 55,000 acres of wetlands once drained for a failed real estate development.
A new study identifies thousands of flowering plants belonging to rare and ancient lineages that are in urgent need of protection.
Scientists are increasingly worried that a key Atlantic current, which delivers warmth to northern Europe and shapes weather globally, is at risk of collapse. Multiple lines of evidence suggest it may be nearing a tipping point — though the research is far from certain.
Miners in Appalachia are suffering from a resurgence of black lung. The Trump administration, which is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in coal projects, has indefinitely delayed regulations that would protect miners.
A growing body of research has revealed the critical, but unappreciated, role that older animals play in group survival. From elephants to albatrosses to killer whales, animal elders use hard-won knowledge, skills, and experience to aid younger kin.