Environment | Science News for Students

Environment

a fire truck heading towards the Carr Fire

Dramatic image of a fire truck going in to fight the Carr Fire outside Redding, Calif., in late July. On July 23, the intense heat and debris from this fire created a fire tornado.

E.L. Karey

Weather & Climate
 
Nov 14, 2018
California’s Carr Fire spawned a true fire tornado
A nightime photo of a wildfire engulfing a forest across a lake. Everything is tinged bright red and orange from the flames.

Extreme wildfires are becoming more common in many parts of the world.

Pinderphoto/iStockphoto

Environment
 
Nov 8, 2018
Is climate change fanning megafires?
a map showing all the major 2018 storms that trekked across the Eastern Pacific to North America's West Coast

This map tracks all of the major 2018 tropical storms that trekked across the Eastern Pacific toward North America’s West Coast. Their strength is marked by their color, from darker blue (lowest speed) to yellow and red (increasingly strong hurricanes).

FrancoLeymas/Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) 

Weather & Climate
 
Oct 29, 2018
Eastern Pacific records its most energetic hurricane season
a radar map showing hurricane Harvey's eyewall

Doughnut of intense storm activity swirls about Harvey’s eyewall (green ring at center with smattering of red and yellow). This radar imagery captured hours before the hurricane’s landfall near Rockport, Texas on August 26, 2017. 

National Weather Service, GR2 Analyst, M. Cappucci

Weather & Climate
 
Oct 12, 2018
Explainer: The furious eye(wall) of a hurricane or typhoon
an animation showing Florence crossing the Atlantic to make U.S. landfall

This NASA satellite image shows Florence as the hurricane approaches the U.S. coast and makes landfall on September 14, 2018.

NASA Worldview

Weather & Climate
 
Sep 26, 2018
Is Hurricane Florence one sign of new climate trend?
a photo of the 2018 Carr fire from a distance

The 2018 Carr fire in northern California, seen here outside Redding, threw pollutants into the air for weeks, beginning July 23. The state reported that air quality was “unhealthy” throughout the region affected by this intense fire. One of the biggest in state history, this fire eventually burned more than 175,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,077 homes.

E.L. Karey

Environment
 
Aug 15, 2018
Wildfires worsen extreme air pollution in U.S. northwest
a photo of the dry Aral Sea, two boats are sitting on the ground

Asia’s Aral Sea, once the world’s fourth largest lake, is now largely dry. The reason: People have been pulling too much water from the rivers that feed it.

oxico/iStockphoto

Environment
 
Aug 3, 2018
People are changing which parts of Earth get more (or less) water
close up of a teenager's hands with sparkly nail polish and holding a lit cigarette

Toxic particles of so-called “thirdhand smoke” can settle on clothing. When the smoker comes indoors, those particles can go airborne again to pollute a new site.

prudkov/iStockphoto

Chemistry
 
Jul 17, 2018
‘Thirdhand’ smoke can hitchhike to non-smoking sites
Andreas Fath swimming in the Tennessee River

What's hidden in the river? During his epic swim of the Tennessee River, a German scientist sampled — and then studied — the pollutants he encountered.

Courtesy of Andreas Fath

Pollution
 
Jun 21, 2018
Scientist tackles water pollution with epic swims
DNA display

Scientists can extract DNA (parts of which are displayed on screen) from samples they picked up in the environment. They then look for patterns in this genetic material to identify which species had left it. In this way, biologists can “detect” what organisms had been around.

Wavebreakmedia/iStockphoto

Genetics
 
Mar 13, 2018
Explainer: DNA hunters