They say “April showers bring May flowers” and this year, April really did live up to its expectations of bringing down the rain. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average precipitation... 

Short, sharp fluctuations in the Earth’s climate throughout the last ice age may have stopped trees from getting a foothold in Europe and northern Asia, scientists say. According to a new study, warm spells were so brief that... 

Shutterstock Glaciers, such as this one in Argentina, are melting and releasing their reserves of water. Farewell, great lakes of ice and frozen rivers. Scientists used satellite images and gravity measurements to peer more closely... 

Shutterstock / spirit of america You were saying? For everyone who was hoping the Obama administration’s proposed new rules for natural gas drilling on public lands would make a difference, the just-released new draft amounts... 

The bleached bones of seabirds are telling us a new story about the far-reaching impacts of industrial fisheries on today’s oceans. Looking at the isotopes of 250 bones from Hawaiian petrels (Pterodroma sandwichensis), scientists... 

The Scottish Islands could make a significant contribution to the UK’s 2020 renewable energy targets, according to a joint report by the UK and Scottish Governments. The research considers the evidence base for developing renewables... 

Billions of dollars of fruits, vegetables, and flowers are thrown away each year as produce ripens too quickly and starts to rot in different markets before public buyers even buy them. Even though you might expect these products to... 

A comprehensive analysis of peer-reviewed articles on the topic of global warming and climate change has revealed an overwhelming consensus among scientists that recent warming is human-caused. The study is the most comprehensive yet... 

Shutterstock Oops, it’s melting. Sorry ’bout that. “Hello, world? Hey, John Kerry here. Just wanted to apologize for all those decades of America’s non-leadership on that crazy global warming thing. But now... 

Melissa Penny Texas had some absolutely bonkers weather yesterday, not just extreme but downright deadly and dangerous. At least six people were killed and dozens injured by a tornado that ripped through the town of Granbury. But... 

Shutterstock One of the great features of California’s cap-and-trade program is that all the money that the state raises by selling carbon allowances to polluters is supposed to be plowed back into initiatives that help cool... 

protographer This is how powerfully good the fast food industry is at making people crave their food: A delivery service in Gaza will smuggle KFC across the Egyptian-Gaza border in order to satisfy cravings for fried chicken. So far,... 

Shutterstock The Earth revolves around the sun. Also, it’s overheating because we’re burning fossil fuels. Can you guess which of those two long-established facts just received an additional jolt of publicized near unanimity... 

Shutterstock Let it burn, says the Tea Party. Tea Partiers who watched gleefully as the sequester slashed government spending are welcome to douse forest fires near their homes with teapots full of Earl Grey this summer. Across-the-board... 

Shutterstock Go crazy, dude. Salt’s membership in junk food’s holy trinity (along with sugar and fat) means it’s one of the food industry’s essential tools for making its products addictively good. (Journalist Michael Moss... 

Various species of whale are showing all sorts of places they shouldn’t be, like the Mediterranean, Cape Cod, and now, Namibia. Yesterday, scientists reported that they saw a gray whale off the African coast, which is really,... 

Shutterstock / Glynnis Jones Superstorm Sandy’s aftermath. Schools and roads are nice to have. But what American taxpayers are really dropping serious money on, through no direct choice of their own, is cleaning up and helping... 

Shutterstock The conflict between electric utilities and distributed energy — mainly rooftop solar panels — is heating up. It’s heating up so much that people are writing about electric utility regulation, the most... 

Here is what South Dakota looks like in the winter: USFWS And here is what it looks like in the summer: And over the weekend, the state basically switched from one to the other overnight. One day, the temperature was 22 degrees F.... 

A new 200-page-reportby the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) urges human society to utilize an often-ignored, protein-rich, and ubiquitous food source: insects. While many in the industrialized west might turn up their noses...