Background Articles

Environmentalists often decry the loss of species diversity in rivers that have been dammed. But while some species lose when we meddle with rivers, others win, sometimes in dramatic and ways.

Sargassum is infesting Mexico’s coastline. Researchers are scrambling to stop an ecological crisis, and maybe even make something good of it.

King salmon fishing in Alaska is political — but for those who can’t do it this summer, it’s also personal.

Watch where you step.

The average temperature for the entire country was 1.2 degrees above normal in March. It is thus the twelfth month in a row that the temperature in Norway has been above normal.

Colorado has seen more 2,500 avalanches this season, some larger than any on record.

Warmer seas have led the fishery to move 300 kilometers further northeast - towards the North Pole. At the same time, cruising traffic in the outlying sea areas is increasing.

If the trend of reduced ice on the world's lakes continues at its current pace, the Canadian tradition of shinny could become a thing of the past, according to new research.

Greenhouse gas emissions provide extreme warming on Svalbard.

The temperature in Whitehorse has dipped just as competitors are doing final preparations for the Yukon Arctic Ultra. The 82 participants in this year's race should be well aware of the dangers posed by the frigid weather, after last year's serious injuries.

Glaciers in western North America over the past 18 years have lost some 117 gigatons of ice — enough that if it was melted and spread across the state of Washington it would come up our knees, said David Shean, co-author of a recent study cataloging glacial loss.

Alex Weber discovered more than 50,000 balls in the ocean near coastal California golf courses. When golf balls degrade, as these were doing, they release plastic particles and toxic chemicals.

PORTLAND, Maine -- Valuable species of shellfish have become harder to find on the East Coast because of degraded habitat caused by a warming environment, according to a pair of scientists that sought to find out whether environmental factors or overfishing was the source of the decline. The scientists reached ...

Bad weather is bad news, also for the red-listed kittiwake. New research reveals that wind conditions combined with the availability of different prey species are determinants of chick production in this seabird.

This cute little guy makes you trip so hard you'll want to die, and could soon start popping up on the Gold Coast.

Commercial salmon fisheries in Washington, Oregon, and California are eligible for a portion of $20 million in disaster assistance after federal officials determined fishery failures occurred.

Scientists say the threat from sargassum is as serious as rising sea levels and hurricanes.

From Longyearbyen to Kiribati, Bangladesh and California. Author Teresa Grøtan has collected young people's everyday life with climate change in the book "Before the Island Sink."

The Western New York landscape is now strewn with dead and dying Ash trees. The evidence of the Ash Borer's destruction is crystal clear, and our environment may never be the same.