Background Articles

As sea levels rise along the Atlantic coast, saltwater is intruding inland, killing trees and turning coastal forests into marshes. Should scientists try to slow the process, or work with it?

More Central Americans have migrated north due to recent storms but haven't been able to enter the U.S. as experts warn climate crises will intensify migration.

New research suggests climate change will cause humans to move in unprecedented numbers. The Times Magazine partnered with ProPublica and data scientists to understand how.

In a single decade, summer lightning tripled across the Arctic, a change directly attributed to rapid Arctic warming, a new scientific paper reports. “Now that we have Arctic warming, you can really get a lot more of the optimal conditions for thunderstorms,” said Robert Holzworth, a University of Washington professor emeritus of Earth and space

<em><strong>News stories specifically for Western Alaska.</strong> Each article or newscast is filled with information about current events, legislation, political races, cultural celebrations, and…

Vancouver Island’s arbutus trees are looking more brown than green these days. Forest biologist Andy MacKinnon says a fungus is attacking the trees, causing the leaves to die off.

The Swedish-developed 19-seater ES-19 electric aircraft for short-haul routes could be ready for take-off with passengers by 2026. With zero-emissions, low-noise and possible to operate on 750-meter runways, the first generation electric planes will be perfect for commuter flights between small airports close to city centers, numerous in the Nordic countries.

Midway along the 92-mile road that winds through Denali National Park, at a spot with an elevation of 3,500 feet and spectacular views of the Alaska Range and the braided rivers that flow out of it, an unstable wall of rock, ice, soil and clay rises precariously. The slope into which the road was cut eight decades ago is already collapsing gradually — and there are fears that it could collapse much more suddenly in the future.

A never before seen species of Ermine (the Haida Ermine), has been discovered in Southeast Alaska. It is one of three main ermine species in the world. Researchers say the isolation of Prince of Wales Island and Haida Gwaii allowed the species to develop and that there could be more discoveries to be made.

The state’s electric companies are seeking a shield for liability from some wildfires started by broken power lines.

Rosatom says the Northern Sea Route has “more space to draw peculiar pictures using your giant ships.”

A new study sheds light on some of the risks associated with Arctic shipping finding that vessels with lower ice-classes are up to 20 times more likely to become stuck in sea ice along Russia’s Northern Sea Route than vessels with higher levels of protection.

Russia has proposed its strategic Arctic shipping route as an alternative to the Suez Canal after a 400-meter cargo ship got stuck in the canal, blocking one of the world's key shipping routes and sparking fears of a rise in oil prices.

Lyubov Morekhodova glides over the ice on skates made by her father not long after World War II. She has lived on the shores of Lake Baikal all her life, where winter temperatures plummet to minus 50C.

Learn about the Kalamazoo River oil spill, its environmental impact, and what made it one of the worst inland oil spills in US history.

Plastic pollution is threatening the wildlife in the Mekong River Basin.

The landfill in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, is overfull, but the hamlet can’t open a new landfill until it can pay to decommission the old one, says hamlet Mayor Harry Towtongie. A new environmental report says bad dumps are a problem in all of Canada's Inuit regions.

While the eruption site in Geldingadalur is closed today due to adverse weather conditions and high levels of toxic gases, authorities are aware of people’s interest in seeing the eruption and are working on securing the area and providing safe access. When visiting an active volcanic eruption, there are several things that must be taken […]

Scientists have discovered microplastics in rainwater and snow, in remote parts of Russia. The researchers first started looking into the pollution in 2020, and they have determined that the small fibers were carried to the remote wilderness by air currents.

There was a strong correlation between the observations of dead birds and wildfires and the toxic gases they produced, but not with the early winter storms.