Earth just broiled to its hottest month in recorded history, according to NASA. Even after the fading of a strong El Nino, which spikes global temperatures on top of man-made climate change, July burst global temperature records. NASA calculated that July 2016 was 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 1950-1980 global average. That's clearly hotter than the previous hotter months, about 0.18 degrees warmer than the previous record of July 2011 and July 2015, which were so close they were said to be in a tie for the hottest month on record, said NASA chief climate scientist Gavin Schmidt.

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Submitted on August 16th 2016 by geoleo

It's possible life could form based on elements other than carbon, but they would look much different than the life we are used to.

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Submitted on August 16th 2016 by rti9

The Florida Keys are three months away from a straw poll vote on whether to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes on an island just east of Key West, and the tourist destination is awash in lawn signs. Alongside the typical signs to vote for court clerk, judge, sheriff or school board are signs that showcase the overhead view of a mosquito and read: “NO CONSENT to release of genetically modified mosquitoes”. For the last five years, the biotechnology company Oxitec has been developing a plan to experimentally...

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Submitted on August 14th 2016 by geoleo with 1 comments

Whether they’re dancing, hunting, or being a pain in the nose, these new arachnid species will knock all 8 of your socks off.

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Submitted on August 14th 2016 by rti9

Sharks can live to be at least 272 years old in the Arctic seas, and scientists say one recently caught shark may have lived as long as 512 years. That's according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science that says Greenland sharks can live longer than any other known animal advanced enough to have a backbone. Until now, the record-holder for the oldest vertebrate was the bowhead whale, known to have lived up to 211 years.

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Submitted on August 12th 2016 by TNY

A giant patch of warm water known as the blob shocks the Pacific, in what some fear is a preview of our future oceans.  

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Submitted on August 14th 2016 by gladsdotter

The large-scale, long-term decline in wild bees across England has been linked to the use of neonicotinoid insecticides by a new study.

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Submitted on August 16th 2016 by jcscher

Argentine ants have invaded every continent in just one century.

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Submitted on August 14th 2016 by Appaloosa with 2 comments

Ron Risman

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Submitted on August 14th 2016 by AdelleChattre with 2 comments

Limiting global warming to 1.5℃ already looks out of reach, so where do we go from here?

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Submitted on August 15th 2016 by kxh with 1 comments

The media largely relegate the greatest challenge facing humanity to footnotes as industry and politicians hurtle us towards systemic collapse of the planet. By George Monbiot. (Aug. 3, 2016)

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Submitted on August 15th 2016 by AdelleChattre with 2 comments

The historic and devastating floods in Louisiana are the latest in a series of heavy deluges that some climate scientists warn will become even more common as the world continues to warm. On Tuesday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) is set to classify the Louisiana disaster as the eighth flood considered to be a once-in-every-500-years event to have taken place in the US in little over 12 months. Since May of last year, dozens of people have been killed and thousands of homes have been swamped with water in extreme events in Oklahoma, Texas, South Carolina...

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Submitted on August 16th 2016 by larylin

As people around the world stepped into their backyards or onto rooftops to peer up at the annual spectacle of the Perseid meteor shower early on Friday morning, few of them had a view like Wilson Jarvis and Steve Linderer.

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Submitted on August 13th 2016 by LisMan with 3 Related Links:

1. Illuminating the Effects of Light Pollution Added by LisMan on August 13th 2016.

2. Get Ready for the Perseids Meteor Shower: ‘It Will Rival the Stars in the Sky.’ Added by LisMan on August 13th 2016.

3. Light Pollution Masks the Milky Way for a Third of the World’s Population Added by LisMan on August 13th 2016.

Driving into the town of Osoyoos, British Columbia, visitors notice the landscape becomes drier. The lodgepole pines and Douglas fir trees that dominate the Okanagan Valley's forests become sparse. If you look closely enough, you may even spot a cactus. Known as the hottest place in Canada, Osoyoos is surrounded by the Okanagan Desert, a semi-arid region that is home to hundreds of plant and animal species unique to the area. This region is particularly special, Lael Parrott, director of the Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity...

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Submitted on August 15th 2016 by belangermira

Scientists have tracked the flight paths of a group of bumble bees throughout their entire lives in what is thought to be the first lifetime tracking study of any animal in such glorious detail.

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Submitted on August 15th 2016 by swift528491

For the first time on record, wind turbines have generated more electricity than was used in the whole of Scotland on a single day. An analysis by conservation group WWF Scotland found unseasonably stormy weather saw turbines create about 106 per cent of the total amount of electricity used by every home and business in the country on 7 August. Gale-force winds lashed much of the country with a speed of 115mph recorded at the top of Cairngorm mountain. 

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Submitted on August 12th 2016 by junglman

Chasing down honesty in BBC’s The Hunt

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Submitted on August 16th 2016 by gladsdotter

Our big brains have long been hailed as our greatest asset. We are smart, have conquered almost every corner on Earth, manipulated our habitat to suit us, and are developing increasingly-innovative technology to make our lives easier. Without our brains, none of these things would have been possible. Though they are costly organs – they require a great deal of energy to power – humans are living proof that the cost can pay off, biologically speaking. We have managed to find ways to overcome the added burden it has taken to evolve ever-bigger brains.

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Submitted on August 17th 2016 by zyery with 1 comments

Armoured in scuba gear, battling below-freezing 45mph gusts and jammed between sliding ice sheets weighing in the tons, photographer Chris Gug had a moment of reckoning while submerged in Montana’s frigid Grinnell Glacier Lake.

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Submitted on August 17th 2016 by jcscher

The popularity of the avocado in the US and rising prices for the “superfood” are fuelling deforestation in central Mexico. Mexican farmers can make much higher profits growing avocados than from most other crops and so are thinning out pine forests to plant young avocado trees. Such is the size of the market that it has become a lucrative business for Mexico’s drug gangs, with extortion money paid to criminal organisations such as Los Caballeros Templarios (The Knights Templar) in Michoacán – the state that produces most of Mexico’s avocados – estimated at 2bn pesos ($109m) a year.

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Submitted on August 11th 2016 by ticktack