As climate change makes the ocean hotter, marine heat waves are causing coral bleaching—when a healthy, colorful reef suddenly expels algae. The reef turns white, and tiny coral polyps, which had been […]
Climate change is affecting the entire planet, but local impacts—floods, droughts, hurricanes, extreme heat, disease, or a combination of all of the above—differ from place to place. A new digital atlas from the U.N.’s […]
Heat waves. Wildfires. Floods. Climate change is no longer a threat looming in the future; it’s our reality today. Designers, such as award-winning Icelandic artist Sruli Recht, are starting to wrestle with how to […]
Looking at a map of annual temperatures across the U.S., it’s clear that the entire country is getting hotter. But when you zoom in on a new app that shows county-level heat data, disparities emerge. That […]
In late June, when temperatures climbed to 115 degrees in Portland, Oregon, houses and buildings across the Pacific Northwest were caught way off guard. Most were designed for much cooler temperatures, with insulation […]
In 1980, a federal law identified the most hazardous sites around the United States, those that contained toxic contaminants in urgent need of cleanup. These “Superfund sites,” named for the initial funding allotted to […]
We didn’t always know that plastic is bad. There was a time when we could see only the revolutionary nature of the material. We didn’t see it as the “forever garbage” we […]
Impacts of extreme heat on cities have ranged from disruptive to devastating in recent years. In 2017, planes in Phoenix couldn’t physically take off in 120-degree heat. In Washington, D.C., and London, metro and tram tracks […]
In 2019, more than four million people across the world participated in a strike for climate action. As of 2021, more than 1,300 institutions, from universities to pension funds, have committed to divest from fossil […]
From icy tundras to billowing clouds, the color white crops up repeatedly in our planet’s palette. This color provides a natural way for light from the sun to reflect back from the […]
