Could Climate Change Alter the Length of the Day?
[ad_1] Let’s consider an example with an imaginary planet. In this solar system, the planet completes one orbit around its sun in 8.6 solar days, instead of 365 days, as…
Greenland’s Melting Glaciers Spew a Complicated Treasure: Sand
[ad_1] That sediment is special, indeed. Desert sand from, say, the Sahara is no good for making concrete because it’s too rounded and uniform. Over millennia, winds push those grains…
The Long, Leguminous Quest to Give Crops Nitrogen Superpowers
[ad_1] If crops could feel envy, it’d be for legumes. Bean plants have a superpower. Or more accurately, they share one. They’ve developed symbiotic relationships with bacteria that process atmospheric…
This Giant Sprinkler System Can Protect Cities From Wildfires
[ad_1] It is 42 degrees Celsius, there has not been any rain for weeks, and the risk of a wildfire is severe. In this dusty corner of southeastern Spain in…
These Trees Are Spreading North in Alaska. That’s Not Good
[ad_1] In the summer of 2019, Roman Dial and his friend Brad Meiklejohn hired a single-engine bush plane out of Kotzebue, on the northwest coast of Alaska. Even those wings…
How the Inflation Reduction Act Affects Food and Agriculture
[ad_1] Black farmers are “going to have to do some paperwork to document the discrimination that occurred, but we can work through that,” Lloyd Wright, a retired farmer and former…
How Long Droughts Make Flooding Worse
[ad_1] On Wednesday, August 17, Hannah Cloke—a hydrologist at the University of Reading—was sitting in her home office when the rain started coming down. It was a welcome sight. Much…
The Future Could Be Blissful—If Humans Don’t Go Extinct First
[ad_1] Or we might want to have strong regulation around which AI systems are deployed, such that you can only use it if you really understand what’s going on under…
As Wildfires Get More Extreme, Observatories Are at Greater Risk
[ad_1] It was 4 am on June 17 when Michelle Edwards, associate director of Kitt Peak National Observatory, got the news: A wildfire had breached the road up to the…
How the Huge New US Climate Bill Will Save You Money
[ad_1] Today President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive bill that represents the biggest investment in climate action in US history. It puts nearly $400 billion toward…
Is Coal Mining Increasing East Kentucky’s Flood Risk?
[ad_1] This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Appalachian states like Kentucky have a long, turbulent history with coal and mountaintop removal—an extractive…
The Psychology of Inspiring Everyday Climate Action
[ad_1] And co-benefits make a lot of sense: People might reasonably feel more empowered to affect their own health than the health of the entire planet. Self-efficacy (the perception that…
What Could Keep Climate Change From Becoming Catastrophic?
[ad_1] We all know climate change is going to be bad. How bad? Can we stop it from becoming catastrophic? (Choose your own definition of “catastrophic.”) Tell me your view…
This Laser-Firing Truck Could Help Make Hot Cities More Livable
[ad_1] When you go on a road trip, you pack snacks and drinks and make sure you have good music to queue. Climate scientist Katia Lamer, on the other hand,…
Humanity’s Biggest Problems Require a Whole New Media Mode
[ad_1] Our media systems are at their limits. From climate change to Covid, the most pressing phenomena of our times cannot be captured by the flat media paradigm we’ve built…
Extreme Heat Is Becoming More Dangerous for Farmworkers
[ad_1] And it’s only going to get worse. In a 2020 paper, University of Washington researchers calculated that the average number of “days spent working in unsafe conditions” due to…
Plant-Based Burgers Aren’t Denting People’s Beef Addiction
[ad_1] Another way to figure out the impact plant-based meats are having is to look at how price changes impact the demand for various kinds of meat. A study of…
Striking Graphs That Show Humanity’s Domination of the Earth
[ad_1] The numbers don’t lie: Humans are ruining this planet. Atmospheric carbon levels and ocean temperatures are going up. Arctic sea ice and biodiversity levels are going down—and no, the…
How Siestas Might Help Europe Survive Deadly Heat Waves
[ad_1] For years, there have been concerns in Spain that this is not the best way to do business. In 2016, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tried to abolish the long…
Data Centers Are Facing a Climate Crisis
[ad_1] When record temperatures wracked the UK in late July, Google Cloud’s data centers in London went offline for a day, due to cooling failures. The impact wasn’t limited to…
How to Prevent Another European Transport Meltdown
[ad_1] As if the cancellation of flights and trains due to strikes and staff shortages weren’t upsetting travelers enough this summer, the European heat wave arrived to exacerbate the travel…
The New Climate Bill’s Secret Weapon? Tax Credits
[ad_1] This bill, then, is a stealthy way to drive Americans as a society toward a cleaner future. It’s turning small individual action—you being better able to afford a heat…
Carbon Offsets Alone Won’t Make Flying Climate-Friendly
[ad_1] Jet A-1, a straw-colored, kerosene-based fuel used in most big airplanes, is a difficult substance to replace. It’s packed with energy; per unit of weight, at least 60 times…
Wildfire Smoke Is Terrible for You. But What Does It Do to Cows?
[ad_1] Other animals on the farm, too, may be vulnerable to wildfire smoke. Horses have massive lungs—the animals are born to run and suck in loads of air in the…
How Do You Know a Cargo Ship Is Polluting? It Makes Clouds
[ad_1] If you have a habit of perusing satellite imagery of the world’s oceans—and who doesn’t, really?—you might get lucky and spot long, thin clouds, like white slashes across the…