Earth Science News

When a farmer cuts down a tree in the Democratic Republic of Congo, there’s often a reason for it. She’s most likely clearing the land to plant crops — the…

In an uncertain world, UNESCO’s environmental, sustainability and peace programs benefit all nations; Trump’s U.S. pullout most deeply hurts Americans, say experts.

On Wednesday, all eyes were on Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf as a long-awaited one-trillion tonne iceberg, the size of the U.S. state of Delaware, was found to have finally…

To some, watching sea ice melt — each floe dissolving slowly away into the Arctic Ocean — might seem the cold-weather equivalent of watching paint dry. But for the roughly…

The marchers didn’t stop all day, defiant of the chill and the rain, the Trump administration and Congress: “We’re nerds. We’re wet. We’re really, really upset!” “We don’t care what…

For those living either north or south of the tropics, images of this green ring around the Earth's equator often include verdant rainforests, exotic animals, and unchanging weather; but they…

The Amazon River's hydrological cycle has become more extreme over the past two decades with increasing seasonal precipitation across much of the basin despite drier conditions in the southern parts…

Glaciers in the Mount Everest region have shrunk by 13 percent and the snow-line has shifted 180 meters (590 feet) higher during the past 50 years, according to a study…

Lake sediments recorded the climate of the Arctic during the last period when CO2 levels were as high as today The future of a globally warmed world has been revealed…

Geoengineering schemes that aim to slow global warming by seeding oceans with iron to boost carbon dioxide-absorbing phytoplankton may not lead to long-term sequestration of the important greenhouse gas, finds…

Deforestation in Borneo. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. There's little evidence that the Earth is nearing a global ecological tipping point, according to a new Trends in Ecology and Evolution…

NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies map representing global temperature anomalies averaged from 2008 through 2012. Visualization credit: NASA Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio 2012 was the ninth warmest year since…

Soot is the second largest man-made contributor to global warming, according to a comprehensive new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres. The research effectively doubles the estimate…

Scientists and experts are increasingly concerned that we are entering an age of ecological collapse with untold impacts for future generations. In Daniel Rirdan's new book, The Blueprint, he outlines…

Rainforest in Malaysian Borneo. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Forests worldwide are at "equally high risk" to die-off from drought conditions, warns a new study published this week in the…

Aerial photo of an Amazon rainforest tributary in Peru. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. The common view of the Amazon is that it is one massive, unbroken forest. This impression…

The Global Carbon Cycle, by Dr. David Archer, is an excellent primer on the global carbon cycle. An easily readable format, this lightweight book is an excellent companion to those…

The Lamont Seamounts are an example of the view from the seafloor synthesized by a team of oceanographers at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. The seamounts are due west of El Salvador,…

Deforestation and climate change will likely decimate much of the Amazon rainforest, says a new study by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and the UK's Met Office Hadley…

A Japanese home is seen adrift in the Pacific Ocean. Ships and aircraft from the Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group are searching for survivors in the coastal waters near Sendai,…