Background Articles

Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences hypothesize that as the melting of the permafrost becomes more prevalent, so will the incidence of lung cancer.

There will be something noticeably different in Old Crow, Yukon in a few months. The hum of diesel engines will be gone, as the community's solar farm is now generating power. "The symbolism in shutting down those generators will be, we're becoming more sustainable and we're becoming more self-sufficient like our ancestors were," said Brandon Kyikavichik, the First Nation's heritage interpreter.

Russian planes seeded clouds to bring down rain on huge wildfires raging in the Siberian region of Yakutia that in one place spread dangerously close to a hydroelectric power plant, authorities said on Monday.

The state’s environmental commissioner is pushing back on EPA’s position that the state should address power-plant emissions.

The Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho is leading efforts to protect vulnerable community members from wildfire smoke indoors by distributing free portable air purifiers and providing education on indoor air quality. A nearby paper mill is a local source of emissions. But now, wildfire smoke is the main pollutant the reservation faces, a near-constant each summer.

A major source of pollution comes from wood-burning stoves. Other sources are vehicle exhaust systems, power plant emissions and heating oil. The air pollution can permanently harm respiratory function and cause other health problems.

Alaskans have shown interest in online smoke and air-quality advisories after a surge of lightning-caused fires across the Interior.

According to a new study, thawing of permafrost due to climate change could expose the Arctic population to much greater concentrations of the invisible, lung cancer-causing gas Radon.

A three-week evacuation odyssey ended for many Yellowknifers Wednesday, as people began to return home. The barricades outside of the city opened at 11 a.m., and cars began streaming in.

The release was first detected last month at one of the company’s North Slope drill sites. A report from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, dated Friday, listed the cause of the release as under evaluation and said that future plans included a continuation of “source remediation operations.”

Great Salt Lake is also known as America's Dead Sea -- owing to a likeness to its much smaller Middle Eastern counterpart -- but scientists worry the moniker could soon take new meaning.

Q fever is a febrile illness caused by infection with the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It is most often transmitted by inhalation of the bacteria after it is shed by infected livestock. The antibody prevalence in NFS samples from 2009 and 2011 (69%) was significantly higher than in 1994 (49%). The antibody prevalence of SSL samples from 2007 to 2011 was 59%. All NFS vaginal swabs were negative for C. burnetii, despite an 80% antibody prevalence in the matched sera. The significant increase in antibody prevalence in NFS from 1994 to 2011 suggests that the pathogen may be increasingly common or that there is marked temporal variation within the vulnerable NFS population.

The Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) Tribes and Climate Change Program is publishing a report called the Status of Tribes and Climate C...