More than 8,000 years ago, as the planet thawed following the end of the last ice age, Northern Europe abruptly cooled. New research reveals that Arctic ice melt weakened a critical ocean current, leaving Europe in the cold, a finding with important implications for future climate change. For a roughly 200-year stretch, scientists believe, temperatures in Europe and the North […]

Between 2012 and 2022, at least 1,910 people advocating for environmental protection were killed worldwide, a new report finds. In 2022 alone, 177 environmental activists were murdered, or roughly one every other day, according to Global Witness, a U.K.-based watchdog group. “Violence, intimidation, and harassment are also being inflicted to silence defenders around the world,” Shruti Suresh, of Global Witness, […]

Bouts of intense drought and rainfall are hurting water quality in rivers around the globe, according to a sprawling new analysis. For the study, scientists looked at 965 case studies, tracking how extreme weather impacted rivers on every habitable continent. They found that water quality dropped during 51 percent of floods and rainstorms, as fertilizer runoff poured into rivers and […]