wildfires

Wildfire Burns in Fukushima ‘No-Go Zone,’ Sparking Fears of Airborne Radiation

Wildfire Burns in Fukushima ‘No-Go Zone,’ Sparking Fears of Airborne Radiation

By Lauren McCauley A wildfire broke out in the highly radioactive “no-go zone” near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant over the weekend, reviving concerns over potential airborne radiation. Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reported that lightning was likely to blame for sparking the fire Saturday on Mount Juman in Namie, which lies in the Fukushima […]

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    6 Weather Predictions for 2017

    6 Weather Predictions for 2017

    By Bob Henson Between a record-strong El Niño and catastrophic floods, fires and drought, 2016 was a memorable year for weather and climate in North America as well as globally. What can we expect as we roll into 2017? A precise weather forecast is asking too much, but there is already a lot we can […]

    18 Signs That Show We’ve Reached the Tipping Point

    18 Signs That Show We’ve Reached the Tipping Point

    By Bruce Melton Our planet’s systems have a tremendous capacity to absorb punishment before they begin to show signs of degradation. Earth’s ecology self-heals like a cut on a finger. It assimilates pollution by chemical, physical and biological means—it changes pollutants into non-hazardous materials and proceeds upon its merry way as if there had been […]

    10 Most Important Environmental Stories of 2016

    10 Most Important Environmental Stories of 2016

    By Jason Mark Christmas has come and gone, New Year’s is right around the corner. That must mean it’s time for my annual roundup of the most important environmental stories of the past year. Some of these topics got a ton of attention (cue: Donald Trump, Standing Rock) while others didn’t get half as much […]

    24 Extreme Weather Events Fueled by Climate Change

    24 Extreme Weather Events Fueled by Climate Change

    Global warming exacerbated two dozen extreme weather events in 2015, finds a report on extreme events and climate published by the American Meteorological Society Thursday. American Meteorological Society The findings, which examined 30 weather events in total, linked man-made climate change to incidents like “sunny day” flooding in Florida, Alaskan wildfires, heavy rains in China […]

    What You Need to Know About Trump’s Choice for Department of Interior

    What You Need to Know About Trump’s Choice for Department of Interior

    By Adam Markham U.S. natural and cultural resources—the parks, landmarks and history of America—are under assault from climate change. So it is troubling that Ryan Zinke, Donald Trump‘s pick to run the Department of the Interior (DOI), seems unsure whether climate change is a real problem or not. Just this week, in an interview with […]

    Fall 2016: The Warmest in U.S. Weather History

    Fall 2016: The Warmest in U.S. Weather History

    By Bob Henson The autumn of 2016 was the warmest ever observed in records going back to 1895 for the 48 contiguous U.S. states, according to data released Wednesday by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The nation’s average September-to-November temperature of 57.63 F was a full 1.05 F above the previous autumn record, […]

    5 Fascinating Google Earth Time-Lapse Videos Show 32 Years of Climate Change

    5 Fascinating Google Earth Time-Lapse Videos Show 32 Years of Climate Change

    Google Earth has added four years of new data along with high-resolution satellite imagery to its time-lapse feature, which is available to anyone who wants to see how the planet has changed since 1984. You’ll see glaciers receding, cities growing and lakes shrinking. Satellite data now ranges from 1984 to 2016 and includes more than […]

    Unprecedented ‘Super Fires’ Devastate Smoky Mountains, Death Toll Climbs to 11

    Unprecedented ‘Super Fires’ Devastate Smoky Mountains, Death Toll Climbs to 11

    Wildfires have devastated eastern Tennessee. The blaze has claimed 11 lives, forced about 14,000 people to evacuate and destroyed hundreds of buildings in Sevier County. Due to continued erratic winds, the fires are very unpredictable and more fire growth is expected. pic.twitter.com/BYd9ANQeT4 — GreatSmokyNPS (@GreatSmokyNPS) November 29, 2016 The wildfires started Sunday from the Great […]