[California] State officials on Thursday announced that the leaking natural gas well in Porter Ranch that spewed ‘plumes of methane and other compounds’ into the atmosphere has been sealed. By Alice Walton, Hailey Branson-Potts and Louis Sahagun. (Feb. 18)

Oil has seeped into multiple rivers, including the principal source of the Amazon River.

‘If it doesn't backfire, then it will be official; nothing can stop him,’ GOP strategist says. By Eli Stokols. (Feb. 14)

In February 2003, an avalanche killed seven students in B.C.’s Glacier National Park. None of the survivors of that day have ever talked to the media. Until now. By Ainsley Doty.

With the proposed connection between the Zika virus and Brazil's outbreak of microcephaly in new born babies looking increasingly tenuous, Latin American doctors are proposing another possible cause: Pyriproxyfen, a pesticide used in Brazil since 2014 to arrest the development of mosquito larvae in drinking water tanks. Might the 'cure' in fact be the poison? By Claire Robinson.

There were so many opportunities for the accident not to happen—the collision between a Legacy 600 private jet and a Boeing 737 carrying 154 people. But on September 29, 2006, high above the Amazon, a long, thin thread of acts and omissions brought the two airplanes together... By William Langewiesche. (Jan. ’09)

Colorado’s Gold King Mine spill sent millions of gallons of contaminated water into the Animas River this past summer. More than 130 miles away in New Mexico, along the San Juan River, the environmental disaster is making the Navajo Nation rethink itself. By Robert Sanchez.

Knowing how to survive in the wild isn't the same thing as knowing how to survive in the big city when an earthquake or tsunami strikes. Wherever you live, Japan's new survival manual may save your life. Unlike most survival manuals, this is realistic advice for real people in plausible situations. By Wes Siler.

At 11:38 a.m. EST the space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Christa McAuliffe is on her way to becoming the first ordinary U.S. civilian to travel into space. 73 seconds after lift off, hundreds on the ground, including Christa’s family, stared in disbelief as the shuttle broke up in a forking plume of smoke and fire. Millions more watched the wrenching tragedy unfold on live television. There were no survivors.

What caused the worst American rail disaster in decades? By Matthew Shaerjan.

Chris Rose's Pulitzer crystal sits in his small French Quarter apartment, its glass badly chipped from various accidents. The disfigured accolade for his work on a reporting team at the Times-Picayune is a reminder of both prowess and loss... By Michael Patrick Welch. (Mar. ’15)

Earth had a tough year for billion-dollar weather-related natural disasters in 2015, with 29--the fourth most since accurate accounting began in 1990, said insurance broker Aon Benfield in their Annual Global Climate and Catastrophe Report, issued last Wednesday.

Since a gas leak erupted outside LA on October 23rd, over 83,000 metric tons of methane have escaped to the atmosphere, prompting public officials to evacuate the neighboring community of Porter Ranch. But as a disturbing new analysis shows, a much broader swath of LA is now drowning in methane. The Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET) is a Cambridge-based nonprofit that’s been shedding light on leaky natural gas infrastructure for years.

Predictions about financial markets are, almost without exception, notoriously wrong and worthless. With that caveat: we have our first respectable major DOOM prediction of 2016!

Westerners tend to think Tantra is only about sex. Exploring its origins in Kathmandu, Isabella Tree found a philosophy more revolutionary than she had imagined.

”Twenty immediately loved the fire truck, a classic Seagrave hook-and-ladder, and began accompanying the firefighters on all their calls, from raging blazes to false alarms.“ By Corey Kilgannon.

Can greater defenses be erected? Should homes be vaulted on stilts? Or is it time for some communities to pack up and leave? By John Eligon.

Night-time patrols of Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd by motorcycle club members in 4x4s, vans and on foot have blessing of police

As a species, we stand at a precipice, and the choices we make in this moment determine a great many things. We are all participants, and now more than ever we need every hand on deck to right this ship and chart a better course. By Camille Seaman.

Phurba Tashi Sherpa, the most accomplished high-altitude climber in history, holds a bucket and crowbar as he claws through the rubble of his home seven months after Nepal's earthquake shattered the country... By Andrew MacAskill.