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Earth

scientists on lake

Geologists edge closer to defining the Anthropocene

Environment

The Anthropocene Working Group is voting on a so-called Golden Spike, a sedimentary layer somewhere on Earth that best exemplifies the global impact of humans on planet Earth. It’s the last, big task in formally defining the Anthropocene, which is being proposed as a new age in geologic time.

Omar Vazquez Sanchez stands in the doorway of a home built from blocks made of seaweed.

In Cancun, this man is turning seaweed trash into natural-building treasures

Environment
Residents of the Accra suburb of Alajo patch up a road after severe flooding destroyed it.

‘Everything is destroyed’: Extreme flooding in Ghana tests climate resilience

Climate Change
Fishermen navigate on the Shatt al-Arab waterway during a sandstorm in Basra, Iraq, Monday, May 23, 2022.

‘It’s a mass ecological crisis’: Extreme weather in Iraq hits those already struggling the hardest

Environment
More than 600,000 people have become displaced due to the ongoing drought in Somalia. Many end up at camps like this one in Luuq, Somalia, March 21, 2022.

Fears of famine grow amid worst drought in Somalia in decades

Climate Change
The International Space Station is a great example of how space has, for the most part, been a peaceful and collaborative international arena.

Space law hasn’t been changed since 1967 – but the UN aims to update laws and keep space peaceful

Global Politics

Activities in space today are far more numerous and complicated compared to 1967, before humans had landed on the moon or Elon Musk had even been born. Two experts explain the need for better laws to keep space peaceful.

The Gaia hypothesis, devised by James Lovelock, posits that Earth is a living, self-regulating organism.

Imagining Gaia, the Earth, as ‘one great, living organism’

James Lovelock’s hypothesis could unlock a whole-systems approach to protecting the amazing life forms on Earth.

An illustration of blue and black magnetic field lines that Earth generates today.

Scientists link Earth’s magnetic reversals to changes in planet’s life and climate

Science

The discovery of a fossilized tree in New Zealand is providing scientists with insight on how magnetic pole reversals could affect life on Earth.

Mount Everest, the world highest peak, and other peaks of the Himalayan range are seen through an aircraft window during a mountain flight from Kathmandu, Nepal, Jan. 15, 2020.

Climate change deeply affects the entire planet — including Mount Everest

Environment

Human activity is impacting the planet, from the deepest parts of the ocean to the tallest peaks. The highest point in the Himalayas is no exception.

Three people walk across ground covered in ice and snow as the horizon stretches behind them.

As Greenland’s ice sheet melts, scientists push to learn ‘how fast’

The Big Melt

The Greenland ice sheet has long helped cool the world and keep sea levels stable. But now it’s melting, and scientists are trying to learn as much as they can, as fast as they can.