Category: Climate

The Arbovirus-Entomology Laboratory of the Texas State Department of Public Health Services is the epicenter of the Lone Star State’s work to contain dangerous vector-borne diseases. | Umair Irfan/Vox Austin, Texas — Under a microscope, a mosquito can look stunning. Their blue-green iridescent scales, purple bands, and attractive spotted wings shimmer — dazzling enough to…

A monarch butterfly lands on a milkweed plant in a neighborhood park in Staten Island, New York. | Benji Jones/Vox BROOKLYN, New York — When people imagine what nature looks like, this probably wouldn’t be it. On an overcast afternoon in August, I stood next to a strip of plants between the sidewalk and the…

An earthquake in Afghanistan killed over 2,200 people last Sunday, with some rural villages still unreachable by rescuers. | Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images By the time the earthquake struck, flattening mud-brick homes across Afghanistan’s eastern mountains last week, many nearby health clinics had already been shuttered for months. Mushtaq Khan, a senior adviser for…

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — How do you capture the deadliest animal on Earth, one that has been responsible for the death of more people than any other species in history? Here at America’s southern border, it’s not with high-tech weaponry, but with a black plastic tub of stinky water tucked under a bush. Surrounded by tall,…

There are over 200 types of mosquitoes in the US — but there are seven that are the most dangerous. There are more than 200 species of mosquitoes in the United States, but only a handful are known to be dangerous to humans because of the diseases they carry.  When the conditions are right, swarms…

It’s easy to assume, as many people do, that our planet is well explored. In the last few centuries, humans have summited Earth’s highest peaks, dived its deepest ocean trenches, and trekked to the North and South poles, documenting the diversity of life along the way — the many birds, butterflies, fish, and other creatures…

This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It has been 20 years since New Orleans’ faulty levee system failed during Hurricane Katrina, causing a flood that claimed almost 1,400 lives and inflicted more than $150 billion in economic damage. The catastrophe was so bad…

In this aerial view taken in 2024, melting icebergs lie in the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland. It sounds like something out of science fiction: In the late 1950s, the US Army carved a tiny “city” into the Greenland ice sheet, 800 miles from the North Pole. It had living facilities, and scientific labs, and working…

This story was originally published by Mother Jones and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The US government is a big-time hoarder. At last count, in three locations — Denver, Fort Knox, and West Point— it had socked away 248,046,115.696 troy ounces of gold. One might think to round that to the nearest ounce,…

Ford President and CEO Jim Farley speaks at Louisville Assembly Plant as the company shares its plans to design and assemble breakthrough electric vehicles in America on August 11, 2025. President Donald Trump has made no secret of his disdain for electric vehicles and is slamming the brakes on government incentives to get them into…