Environment

Deserts either want to broil you alive or force you to put on layers. It's a fascinating ecological condition with a simple explanation.

Christian Frausto Bernal, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY-SA 2.0

The Marieta Islands in Mexico are home to Playa del Amor—a hidden beach uncovered by military test bombings in the 1900s.

Sea turtles in Israel are being saved by mayonnaise.

The popular condiment is good on sandwiches but even better for turtles. It's a major tool in an ecological disaster.

Slow clap for sea cucumbers, whose excretory achievements could help slow climate change damage to the Great Barrier Reef.

The Mexican startup Biofase has found a way to convert avocado pits into disposable utensils that are easier on the environment than the plastic kind.

Compostable and biodegradable mean different things.

Both kinds of products are good for the environment, but they have a few differences that are important to keep in mind.

In the summer of 2021, the cicadas of Brood X will emerge by the billions for the first time in 17 years.

The Alfred Wegener Institute research ship Polarstern reached the North Pole on August 19, 2020, during the year-long MOSAiC expedition to study climate change in the Arctic.

For most of history, the North Pole was the stuff of legends and wild theories. Now people run a marathon there every April. Here are more unexpected facts about the top of the world.

Click a button and tree.fm will play you recordings from the rainforests of South America, the temperate forests of Europe, and beyond.

A young beaver with all four feet firmly on the ground.

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a parachuting beaver!” —Something you probably thought you’d never say.

Wildfires have reached historic proportions this year.

The August Complex fire ravaging California is being called a "gigafire," and it's every bit as imposing and destructive as the name implies.

A look at the Global Safety Net's online map application.

Certain lands can store large quantities of carbon (though we also need to cut carbon emissions in the first place).

A group of inconsiderate campers recently received a package from Khao Yai National Park filled with their own trash and a note that said, "Please let us return these to you."

You can appreciate the foliage in states like New Hampshire, Vermont, and Colorado from your computer this autumn.

Killer whales might be lashing out in response to decades of disruption by humans.

Killer whales have repeatedly laid siege to boats, working in concert in what appear to be deliberate acts of aggression.

Homemade face masks can look cute, but feeling like you’re breathing in stale air isn’t exactly fun.

NPS/Cascades Carnivore Project, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Special remote cameras have detected a rare nursing female wolverine and her two kits in Washington's Mount Rainier National Park.

Blood stars and Acadian redfish lurk near plates and a stove from the Portland.

The SS 'Portland' vanished into the Atlantic during a storm of the century, but we still don’t know exactly why it sank.

These hikers's gut microbes are running the show.

Your gut microbes might be yearning for their outdoor counterparts—and telling your brain to go find them.

Death Valley National Park in California.

The searing heat comes close to the 134 degrees recorded in Death Valley in 1913. But with that temperature called into question, Sunday's measurement may be the hottest ever.

Earthquakes don't cause giant cartoonish chasms to open up, but they can tear up the landscape like this.

Fear not: the chances of “The Big One” hitting while you read this article are very, very slim. But that doesn't mean you should let your guard down.

Ray Scott, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY SA 3.0

A five-year trial has proven the beaver families on England's Otter River are not harmful to the local ecosystem—they actually benefit it.

Veronique de Viguerie/Stringer/Getty Images

Honey from hives downwind from the Notre-Dame fire contained 3.5 times as much lead as Parisian honey collected before April 2019.

The mug shot of Washington's smallest (but still much too large) criminal.

A murder hornet’s stinger can do some serious damage to humans, but what its pincers do to bees is arguably worse.

Why Are Deserts So Hot During the Day and Cold at Night?

This Magical Hidden Beach in Mexico Was Uncovered by Military Bombs

How Mayo Is Being Used to Save Sea Turtles

Sea Cucumbers on One Coral Reef Drop Several Eiffel Towers’ Worth of Poop Each Year—and That’s a Good Thing

This Startup Makes Eco-Friendly Utensils Out of Discarded Avocado Pits

Compostable vs. Biodegradable: What's the Difference?

Billions of Brood X Cicadas Are Ready to Emerge After 17 Years Underground

11 Frosty Facts About the North Pole

This Online Tool Transports You to Forests Around the World

Watch: In 1948, Idaho Officials Sent 76 Beavers Parachuting Into Idaho’s Wilderness

What Exactly Is a Gigafire?

Which Places Should We Protect First to Stop Climate Change? This Interactive Map Tells You

Thailand National Park Officials Mailed Trash Back to Litterbugs

Take a Virtual Fall Foliage Tour With These Nature Webcams

Orca-Strated Attack: Killer Whales Are Crashing Into Boats, Seemingly On Purpose

LG’s New Wearable Air Purifier Is the Face Mask of the Future

Wolverine Family Spotted in Mount Rainier National Park for the First Time in a Century

New Expedition Will Explore the 1898 Shipwreck Known as ‘New England’s Titanic’—And You Can Livestream It

Craving Nature? Your Gut Microbiome Might Be Responsible

It Was 130 Degrees in Death Valley This Weekend—Likely the Hottest Temperature Recorded on Earth Since 1913

9 Rockin' Facts About Earthquakes

Beavers on Devon's River Otter to Become England's First Permanent Population in Centuries

Lead from the 2019 Notre-Dame Cathedral Fire Detected in Paris’s Beehives

Washington Officials Just Caught Their First ‘Murder Hornet’—Now They Have Less Than Two Months to Find Its Nest