Earth

The United States has recorded its hottest summer ever, as intense heat and drought affected broad areas of the country. Between June and August, the average temperature across the contiguous United States reached 23.6 degrees Celsius (74.4 degrees Fahrenheit), according to figures released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Wednesday. The seasonal average was 1.7C (3F) above the 20th-century norm and 0.2C (0.4F) warmer than the former record, which had been shared by

Malaysia has announced a state of emergency in a district of Sarawak after haze from wildfires in nearby Indonesia pushed air pollution to levels considered hazardous. King Sultan Ibrahim “has given his consent for an emergency to be declared across Serian Division, Sarawak, following haze conditions that have reached levels dangerous to public health and safety,” the office of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday. Recommended Stories • list 1 of 3Malaysia’s former leader Ismail Sabri

When people imagine scientific research, they often picture lab coats, microscopes and sophisticated machines. In practice, though, science can take place in far less conventional settings. Across the globe, researchers are pursuing unusual questions in unexpected ways — including carefully pressing different areas of a venomous snake to determine which actions are most likely to provoke it into biting a person. That project was among 10 studies recognized Thursday at the Ig Nobel awards, which

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Delegates from almost 200 nations concluded United Nations talks on desertification in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Friday, focusing on how to keep land fertile as a warming climate intensifies and damaged soils and ecosystems become less able to retain water, grow food and sustain communities. As much as 40% of the planet’s land is degraded, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, which hosts the biennial conference. Drought is also appearing

Evidence hidden in DNA may help solve the mystery of human ancestors who are absent from the fossil record but remain embedded in the genes of people alive today. Scientists established years ago that our species, Homo sapiens, interbred with extinct human relatives, including Neanderthals and Denisovans. Yet other ancestral groups have remained difficult to identify. Unlike Neanderthals and Denisovans, whose DNA has been extracted from prehistoric remains, these populations are genetic

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A court in Peru on Monday evening found four men guilty in a contract-killing case and imposed prison sentences ranging from 15 to 35 years for the 2023 murder of Indigenous forest defender Quinto Inuma Alvarado. The closely followed proceedings were widely viewed as a major test of whether violence against Indigenous and environmental advocates in the Amazon would be punished. Genix Saboya Saboya and Limber Ríos Ruiz each received 35-year prison terms. Segundo Juan

When a wildfire ignited near his First Nation community in northern Ontario, Hubert Wigwas chose not to evacuate. He installed sprinklers on his roof to douse drifting embers. He checked in on elders who had also decided to remain, and he filled the tanks of four boats by the lake in case a rapid escape became necessary. "This represents everything I’ve worked for over 58 years," said Wigwas, a councillor from Gull Bay First Nation. "I’m not prepared to walk away and watch it

A day at the beach should be relaxing, but there’s a simple way to prevent seagulls from swooping in and stealing your lunch. You’re basking in the sunshine, breathing in the salty air – unaware that a sharp-eyed opportunist is watching your every move. Out of nowhere, a bird drops from the sky, its wide wings briefly blocking the Sun. Amid frantic flapping and scattered chips, a hefty herring gull snatches your meal straight from your hands. Herring gulls – the classic “seagulls” found in

ADDU CITY, Maldives (AP) — Recently, a group of Maldivian youth kayaked across a lagoon to protest land reclamation that was encroaching on protected mangrove wetlands within a UNESCO biosphere reserve. On a stretch of newly filled land, they spray-painted the word “ECOCIDE” to underscore what they see as irreversible environmental harm. The nonprofit Project ThimaaVeshi — meaning “self and surroundings” — represents a rising wave of young activists in the Indian Ocean archipelago. They are

The wildfires sweeping across Europe feel deeply personal to Professor Marta Yebra, even though she now lives thousands of kilometres away. Born in Spain and now based in Canberra, the bushfire specialist has devoted much of her career to helping Australia – one of the most fire-exposed nations on Earth – better confront its own destructive blazes. She leads the Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence, created after Australia’s catastrophic 2019–20 Black Summer fires, which burned an area

The signs of climate change are evident in the extreme fire weather that fueled this week’s destructive wildfires in Spain and France, and have intensified Southern Europe’s fire seasons over the past eight years, according to two newly released studies. A rapid analysis published Thursday by scientists with World Weather Attribution found that human-driven climate change made the hot, dry conditions behind Spain’s record-breaking blaze 20 times more likely. In France, climate change doubled

When a lone worm was discovered deep within Earth’s crust, it set off an extraordinary chain of events that reshaped our understanding of how far life can extend beneath our feet. If you could bore through the soil below you and descend into the planet’s crust, discomfort would set in quickly. Sunlight would disappear, temperatures would rise, and pressure would steadily increase as you edged closer to the molten interior. Water trapped deep underground would seep through cracks in the rock. At

BANTARGEBANG, Indonesia (AP) — Well before sunrise touches Indonesia’s largest landfill, Nur Wencih is already scaling heaps of refuse with thousands of other waste pickers, searching for items that can be sold. The 35-year-old widow has spent nearly 20 years working at the sprawling dump on Jakarta’s eastern fringe, following in the footsteps of her parents, who still depend on it for income. Earnings from Bantargebang have covered her rent and daily meals and helped support her two teenage

More than 20,000 local residents and vacationers have been evacuated from southwest France as fast-moving wildfires continue to spread across the region. Roughly 800 firefighters were working to contain the blaze about 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Bordeaux on Thursday. They were supported by hundreds of gendarmes and members of the armed forces assisting with emergency operations. Recommended Stories • list 1 of 3Spain and France confront intense wildfires amid heightened risk • list 2 of

Wildfire smoke — increasingly common across the Northern Hemisphere as the planet heats up — affects nearly every organ in the human body and is responsible for tens of thousands of deaths each year, according to a growing body of medical research. Its impact can be swift. Within hours, asthma attacks rise and ambulance calls increase. Within a day or two, emergency departments fill with patients suffering from heart attacks, breathing difficulties, cardiovascular complications and even mental

Long before his name was attached to one of the most formidable predators ever to walk the Earth — or appeared in the pages of an auction catalog — the late Gary “Gus” Licking, a cattle rancher in South Dakota, had a strong feeling that something extraordinary lay beneath his land. The Licking ranch sits within the Hell Creek Formation, a renowned fossil-rich region spanning Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. It is considered the most significant site in the world for Tyrannosaurus rex. One of

KUBUQI DESERT, China (AP) — For five decades, millions of workers have carried out the same careful routine across the windswept deserts of northern China: pressing forearm-length sticks into loose sand in straight rows, then crossing them with another set to create a tight grid. In the middle of each small square, young saplings are planted. This approach, known as “straw checkerboards,” is a straightforward but effective way to anchor shifting dunes. The grids reduce wind speed at ground

Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has dropped to its lowest level in ten years during the first half of 2026, according to newly released government data. The figures, published on Friday, represent a significant achievement for President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has made reducing destruction in the world’s largest rainforest a central goal of his administration. Between January and June, approximately 1,295 square kilometres (500 square miles) of forest were cleared in the

Last month became the warmest June ever observed in Western Europe, with temperatures exceeding the 1991–2020 average by more than three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. In a statement released Thursday, the climate monitoring agency reported that the region’s average temperature climbed to 20.74C (69.33F). The surge was largely driven by a powerful heatwave in the latter half of the month that shattered records in

A bold new effort to prevent one of NASA’s renowned space observatories from falling back to Earth is now underway. If it succeeds, the mission will become the first commercial robotic operation to capture and service an uncrewed NASA spacecraft that was never designed for in-orbit maintenance, according to the agency. Without action, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory would slip below a critical orbital altitude this month due to atmospheric drag intensified by recent solar activity. For