ENVIRONMENT

This Startup Makes Eco-Friendly Utensils Out of Discarded Avocado Pits

The Mexican startup Biofase has found a way to convert avocado pits into disposable utensils that are easier on the environment than the plastic kind.

Compostable and biodegradable mean different things.

Compostable vs. Biodegradable: What's the Difference?

Both kinds of products are good for the environment, but they have a few differences that are important to keep in mind.

Billions of Brood X Cicadas Are Ready to Emerge After 17 Years Underground

In the summer of 2021, the cicadas of Brood X will emerge by the billions for the first time in 17 years.

The Alfred Wegener Institute research ship Polarstern reached the North Pole on August 19, 2020, during the year-long MOSAiC expedition to study climate change in the Arctic.

11 Frosty Facts About the North Pole

For most of history, the North Pole was the stuff of legends and wild theories. Now people run a marathon there every April. Here are more unexpected facts about the top of the world.

This Online Tool Transports You to Forests Around the World

Click a button and tree.fm will play you recordings from the rainforests of South America, the temperate forests of Europe, and beyond.

Make a Great Drink and Stay Sustainable With These Reusable Coffee Filters and Tea Bags

Paper coffee filters and tea bags can have harmful effects on the environment, so ReFlow wants to reimagine these caffeine staples with the help of recycled cotton.

A young beaver with all four feet firmly on the ground.

Watch: In 1948, Idaho Officials Sent 76 Beavers Parachuting Into Idaho’s Wilderness

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a parachuting beaver!” —Something you probably thought you’d never say.

Wildfires have reached historic proportions this year.

What Exactly Is a Gigafire?

The August Complex fire ravaging California is being called a "gigafire," and it's every bit as imposing and destructive as the name implies.

A look at the Global Safety Net's online map application.

Which Places Should We Protect First to Stop Climate Change? This Interactive Map Tells You

Certain lands can store large quantities of carbon (though we also need to cut carbon emissions in the first place).

Thailand National Park Officials Mailed Trash Back to Litterbugs

A group of inconsiderate campers recently received a package from Khao Yai National Park filled with their own trash and a note that said, "Please let us return these to you."

Smoke fills the sky on Harbor Island in Seattle, Washington on September 12, 2020.

Smoke From the West Coast Wildfires Has Been Reported As Far Away As the Netherlands

The combination of the raging fires and a jet stream has led to smoke from the West Coast wildfires moving across the Northeast and has even tinted the sky in Europe.

Take a Virtual Fall Foliage Tour With These Nature Webcams

You can appreciate the foliage in states like New Hampshire, Vermont, and Colorado from your computer this autumn.

Killer whales might be lashing out in response to decades of disruption by humans.

Orca-Strated Attack: Killer Whales Are Crashing Into Boats, Seemingly On Purpose

Killer whales have repeatedly laid siege to boats, working in concert in what appear to be deliberate acts of aggression.

A volunteer for World Central Kitchen prepares hurricane relief meals.

5 Ways You Can Help Victims of Hurricane Laura

Louisiana’s latest hurricane was one of the strongest in U.S. history. Here’s how to partake in the relief efforts.

LG’s New Wearable Air Purifier Is the Face Mask of the Future

Homemade face masks can look cute, but feeling like you’re breathing in stale air isn’t exactly fun.

NPS/Cascades Carnivore Project, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

Wolverine Family Spotted in Mount Rainier National Park for the First Time in a Century

Special remote cameras have detected a rare nursing female wolverine and her two kits in Washington's Mount Rainier National Park.

Blood stars and Acadian redfish lurk near plates and a stove from the Portland.

New Expedition Will Explore the 1898 Shipwreck Known as ‘New England’s Titanic’—And You Can Livestream It

The SS 'Portland' vanished into the Atlantic during a storm of the century, but we still don’t know exactly why it sank.

These hikers's gut microbes are running the show.

Craving Nature? Your Gut Microbiome Might Be Responsible

Your gut microbes might be yearning for their outdoor counterparts—and telling your brain to go find them.

Death Valley National Park in California.

It Was 130 Degrees in Death Valley This Weekend—Likely the Hottest Temperature Recorded on Earth Since 1913

The searing heat comes close to the 134 degrees recorded in Death Valley in 1913. But with that temperature called into question, Sunday's measurement may be the hottest ever.

Earthquakes don't cause giant cartoonish chasms to open up, but they can tear up the landscape like this.

9 Rockin' Facts About Earthquakes

Fear not: the chances of “The Big One” hitting while you read this article are very, very slim. But that doesn't mean you should let your guard down.

Ray Scott, Wikimedia Commons // CC BY SA 3.0

Beavers on Devon's River Otter to Become England's First Permanent Population in Centuries

A five-year trial has proven the beaver families on England's Otter River are not harmful to the local ecosystem—they actually benefit it.

Veronique de Viguerie/Stringer/Getty Images

Lead from the 2019 Notre-Dame Cathedral Fire Detected in Paris’s Beehives

Honey from hives downwind from the Notre-Dame fire contained 3.5 times as much lead as Parisian honey collected before April 2019.

The mug shot of Washington's smallest (but still much too large) criminal.

Washington Officials Just Caught Their First ‘Murder Hornet’—Now They Have Less Than Two Months to Find Its Nest

A murder hornet’s stinger can do some serious damage to humans, but what its pincers do to bees is arguably worse.

Mysterious seeds are showing up in mailboxes in at least seven states.

Did You Get a Packet of Seeds in the Mail From China? Don't Open It

The seed packets, which have been mailed unsolicited to residents in at least seven states, have not been approved by agricultural officials and might be harmful to local plant life.

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