Background Articles

For as long as anyone remembers, Napakiak has been retreating from the Kuskokwim. The village of about 400 people sits on a bend in the river, and every

The first storm of the season not only tamped down the fire, it also began the process of flushing an unknown mixture of metals, toxic organic compounds, and other chemicals from the air, ash, and debris into the region’s creeks and rivers.

Rising sea levels will threaten three times more people in the next 30 years than previously thought, according to the latest scientific estimates. Among the hundreds of millions of people worldwide facing the threat are the 400 residents of Newtok, Alaska. Rising river and eroding land is pushing the entire community to relocate, despite emotional and logistical hurdles.

Following a season of drought, the Southeast Alaska community of Metlakatla is navigating a different relationship with water, like a number of other places in the region.

Toxic algal blooms which can be fatal to humans, are increasing across the world as temperatures rise, according to the first global survey of dozens of freshwater lakes based on 30 years of NASA data. 

An emergency project to pump water from Unnamed Lake started in mid-August, and has been successful. The city's reservoir at Lake Geraldine is projected to be filled ten days ahead of schedule.

For more than a century farmers in California's Central Valley have been pumping water out of the ground — so much so that the land is slowly sinking, a process known as subsidence. In fewer than 100 years, it's dropped 8½ metres.

The top of the world saw record-beating average temperatures flashing through all three summer months.

The monthly temperature for the entire country was 1.7 degrees above normal.

Microplastics from the breakdown of plastics and from microbeads used in toothpaste and exfoliants, are so small, they are able to travel in the atmosphere.

Usually blue-green algae is at its heaviest in Finnish lakes in August, but this summer levels in August are lower than at any time in the 20 years of national monitoring,

With some of this year's salmon runs projected to be the lowest on record, West Coast salmon fishermen are demanding disaster relief from the federal and provincial governments.

A new study that suggests sockeye returns have dropped by three-quarters in the Skeena River over the last century should serve as a "wake-up call" for B.C., the lead researcher says.

From the Koyukuk River, to the Kuskokwim, to Norton Sound, to Bristol Bay’s Igushik River, unusually warm temperatures across Alaska this summer led to die-offs of unspawned chum, sockeye and pink salmon. Warm waters also sometimes this summer acted as a “thermal block” — essentially a wall of heat salmon don’t swim past, delaying upriver migration.

Average temperature for month amid Arctic heatwave was 58.1F (14.5C), nearly 1F above previous high set in July 2004

Bees, butterflies, and other insects are under attack by the very plants they feed on as U.S. agriculture continues to use chemicals known to kill.

Salmon have been found dead in rivers across Western Alaska this summer. The largest die-off reported comes from the Koyukuk River, a tributary of the Yukon.

Record-breaking temperatures are nothing new for Norwegian glaciers. If temperatures become warmer, more glaciers may disappear.

A city council member estimated the Western Alaska village has lost about 20 feet of riverbank since May.

Earth’s natural cycles can’t account for the recent warming seen over the past 100 years, new research suggests.