60-Second Earth

National Park Service researchers recorded ambient sound from all over the country to find out where there’s still stillness. David Biello reports

Life thrives even deep inside Earth and scientists are beginning to suspect extensive connections among those underground environments. David Biello reports

The long-term winter warming of Russia’s far north has gotten a boost from industrialization. David Biello reports

The biggest single source of global warming pollution actually started to shrink in 2014. David Biello reports

The value of recycling depends on the material in question and whether all hidden costs and benefits go into the analysis. David Biello reports  

Desire for gold has made mining in tropical forests financially worthwhile, leading to ecosystem destruction. Cynthia Graber reports  

Low oil prices present an opportunity to come to grips with our crumbling infrastructure and the cost of climate change. David Biello reports  

Researchers announced the discovery of 98 beetle species previously unknown to science. David Biello reports  

The Sundarbans, part of the world's largest mangrove forest and stretching across India and Bangladesh, have been tarnished by a 350,000-liter oil spill. David Biello reports  

Good news for gas and oil consumers can be bad news for the environment. David Biello reports

The pattern that stores a film on a Blu-ray disc also can help improve photovoltaics. David Biello reports

When the Sun's magnetic field is pointed away from Earth, lightning strikes in the U.K. go up 50 percent. Christopher Intagliata reports

A new tool may help officials crack down on the illegal wildlife trade. David Biello reports

Protected land and sea areas serve the wildlife within them as well as the humans who live near them. But countries are backtracking on their financial commitments to these vital regions. Steve Mirsky reports  

The  United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 's new synthesis report adds urgency to the need to cut additional greenhouse gas pollution

Plastic-removal machines will enable Ghana's e-waste recoverers to get at valuable metal guts without burning off the exteriors. David Biello reports  

A breakthrough in fusion could solve the world's energy problems, but remains improbable. David Biello reports

Infected gorillas and chimps butchered for meat may be behind Ebola outbreaks. David Biello reports  

A World Wildlife Fund report estimates losses of 40 percent of all individual land and sea animals, and a 70 percent population crash of all river animals, since 1970. David Biello reports  

Participlants in the People's Climate March in New York City September 21st hope to persuade world leaders at the U.N. Climate Summit that follows. David Biello reports  

The world united to combat the ozone hole, can we do the same for climate change? David Biello reports

The mighty blue whale is back after being nearly hunted to extinction. David Biello reports

The first step in solving the world's forest problem is recognizing the world's forest problem. David Biello reports

A physicist may have dreamed up a new way to clean up oil spills. David Biello reports

Legal ivory markets that are supposed to only deal in stockpiles and antiques inevitably launder poached ivory. Close them all, says WCS vice president for species conservation. David Biello reports  

Cyanobacteria fed by nutrients carried over the Atlantic in African dust may have initiated the process by which, over millions of years, calcium carbonate collected to build the Bahamas. David Biello reports  

Of four common corals and algae tested, three still produced shells in conditions that mimic oceans if atmospheric CO2 concentrations reached 1,000 ppm. David Biello reports  

At test sites, the exposure of rock by ants accelerated the absorption of atmospheric CO 2 by the rock by as much as 335 times compared with ant-free areas. David Biello reports  

How existing cities expand and new cities emerge will determine how humanity fares in the 21st century. David Biello reports  

Environmental destruction—from smuggling elephant tusks to illegal dumping of toxic waste—generates as much as $213 billion annually for criminals and terrorists. David Biello reports  

Computer models show that increased levels of greenhouse gases, along with their trapped heat, will make the atmosphere more stagnant, leading to many more days of unhealthy air. David Biello reports.  

The Global Alliance on Health and Pollution calls for a war against pollution to save the lives of more than eight million people annually. David Biello reports  

Thanks to us humans, there's a new type of rock in the geologic record. And it's part plastic. David Biello reports  

When gas mileage cost was explicitly revealed on new car window stickers, potential consumers were more likely to choose the most efficient vehicle. David Biello reports.  

In a May 21 speech Pope Francis warned that despoiling the environment would come back to haunt humanity. David Biello reports  

A building-sized poem shows how billboards could help cut pollution from cars. David Biello reports  

Since the 1970s the locations where tropical cyclones (hurricanes and typhoons) reach their maximum intensities have shifted toward both poles at a rate of about 35 miles per decade. David Biello reports  

Corn plants bred to be planted very close together thrive in good weather but appear to be particularly vulnerable to the droughts predicted in the coming decades. Cynthia Graber reports  

A meta-analysis of ecosystems finds that species losses in any given place do not yet translate to large changes in the number of different species in that place. David Biello reports  

Some fish living in waters with currently naturally high levels of CO2 lose their sense of smell, and with it their ability to perceive predators—a possible portent to a global situation in the near future. David Biello reports  

Building on light-cloaking work, physicists took a small step toward the goal of shielding cities from earthquakes by deflecting incoming energy. David Biello reports  

Smartphones, cheap satellite imaging and crowdfunded enterprises have made citizen oversight possible that was undreamed of by past transparency advocates and environmentalists. David Biello reports  

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory has a working prototype for a space-based solar energy collector and distributor that would beat the cloudy-day problem. David Biello reports  

A consideration of the role of sootlike particulates and ozone implies that the climate should will not be insensitive to increasing levels of greenhouse gases. David Biello reports  

Bats ate less fruit in lit areas than in dark ones, which may lessen their seed-dispersal activities needed to bring back slashed rainforests. Cynthia Graber reports.  

The U.S. government has given industry permission to use of lethally loud seismic devices up and down the east coast. David Biello reports

A new study attempts to quantify CO 2 emissions if economic growth continues. David Biello reports

As more people move to cities, careful planning could mean a happy home for both humans and a substantial amount of wildlife. David Biello reports

More rain related to a warming climate soaks Magellanic penguin chicks to the skin before their waterproof feathers grow in, killing them from hypothermia. Allie Wilkinson reports

Lunar New Year means tens of millions of travelers in China, mostly by bus but increasingly by car, which is bad news for air quality. David Biello reports  

A host of factors determine the role of electric and hybrid cars in reducing greenhouse gas pollution, such as whether coal is their ultimate fuel source. David Biello reports