oceans

World’s Largest Iceberg Breaks Free in Antarctica

World’s Largest Iceberg Breaks Free in Antarctica

The largest iceberg in the world — A23a, nearly 1,500 square miles, about three times as big as New York City — has broken free of its anchor on the floor of the Weddell Sea and begun to drift toward the Southern Ocean. In 1986, the Antarctic iceberg calved off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in […]

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    EU Agrees to Restore 20% of Its Lands and Waters by 2030

    EU Agrees to Restore 20% of Its Lands and Waters by 2030

    The European Union (EU) has agreed on a provisional agreement for a Nature Restoration Law — first proposed by the European Commission in June of last year — that would require member states to introduce measures for the restoration of 20 percent of the bloc’s land and sea ecosystems by 2030. More than 80 percent […]

    ‘No Plastic Chemical Can Be Classified as Safe’: Study Finds Hundreds of Toxins in Recycled Plastics

    ‘No Plastic Chemical Can Be Classified as Safe’: Study Finds Hundreds of Toxins in Recycled Plastics

    Since its invention more than 100 years ago, plastic has become increasingly ubiquitous in the environment, from the depths of the ocean to within algae beneath Arctic sea ice. Tiny microplastics have been detected floating high in the atmosphere above the French Pyrenees, as well as in human blood. Plastics persist in the environment because […]

    Flooding 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Flooding 101: Everything You Need to Know

    Quick Key Facts What Is ‘Flooding’? Flooding occurs when water submerges land that is typically dry. That water can come from a variety of sources, such as rainfall, a storm surge or high tide, a river overflowing its banks, a dam bursting or snow or ice melting. Some types of flooding can be beneficial for […]

    Environmental Groups Launch Global Plastic Laws Database

    Environmental Groups Launch Global Plastic Laws Database

    A group of environmental organizations has produced the Global Plastic Laws Database, which is launching ahead of the next round of the United Nations Plastic Treaty negotiations in November. The Global Plastic Laws Database will track plastic-related legislation around the world and allow researchers to study laws relating to all cycles of plastic production and […]

    Scientists Find Two Ways That Hurricanes Rapidly Intensify

    Scientists Find Two Ways That Hurricanes Rapidly Intensify

    Rapidly intensifying hurricanes are some of the most frightening and destructive types of extreme weather. Predicting them has been notoriously difficult for forecasters who have been unable to fully understand why some tropical storms or tropical depressions that seem commonplace can suddenly turn into major hurricanes with devastating winds and deadly storm surges. Now, researchers […]

    Time to Treat Climate and Biodiversity Crises as One Global Health Emergency, Major Editorial Argues

    Time to Treat Climate and Biodiversity Crises as One Global Health Emergency, Major Editorial Argues

    A new editorial published in more than 200 health journals challenges health professionals and world leaders to look at global biodiversity loss and climate change as “one indivisible crisis” that must be confronted as a whole. The authors of the editorial call separating the two emergencies a “dangerous mistake,” and encourage the World Health Organization […]