Next month, a total solar eclipse will pass over a slice of the South Pacific, Chile, and Argentina—and directly over an observatory in the Andes run by the National Science Foundation. Astronomers and physicists are now preparing the experiments they plan to run during the eclipse. As with past eclipses, these experiments will focus on observing the Sun, as well as the effects of eclipses on Earth.

The case for action to tackle the climate emergency, on a scale far beyond anything that has yet been attempted, is increasingly widely understood. Almost three decades after the first UN climate treaty was agreed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, and despite the commitments thrashed out among nation states at every summit since, global carbon emissions last year rose to a record 37.1bn tonnes.

Globally, we are ingesting an average of 5 grams of plastic every week, the equivalent of a credit card, a new study suggests. This plastic contamination comes from "microplastics" -- particles smaller than five millimeters -- which are making their way into our food, drinking water and even the air. Around the world, people ingest an average of around 2,000 microplastic particles a week, according to the study by the University of Newcastle, in Australia.

In one of the first scenes of Ice on Fire, a new climate documentary produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio, a scientist drives a snowmobile to a tiny cabin on a ridge in the Rocky Mountains and turns on a pump that sucks outdoor air into a glass flask so it can be taken to a lab to measure how much CO2 is in the atmosphere. In another scene, it shows bubbles of methane–a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide–escaping from an Arctic lake as the permafrost melts.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his government will ban single-use plastics — which could include bags, straws and cutlery — in Canada in 2021 at the earliest. "We need to cover all of Canada with this decision and that's why the federal government is moving forward on a science-based approach to establishing which harmful single-use plastics we will be eliminating as of 2021," said Trudeau during a stop Monday at the Gault Nature Reserve in Mont St-Hilaire, just outside Montreal.

Climate change is poised to increase the spread of dengue fever, which is common in parts of the world with warmer climates like Brazil and India, a new study warns. Worldwide each year, there are 100 million cases of dengue infections severe enough to cause symptoms, which may include fever, debilitating joint pain and internal bleeding. There are an estimated 10,000 deaths from dengue — also nicknamed breakbone fever — which is transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes that also spread Zika and chikungunya.

Robert Downey Jr. took to the stage at Amazon's Re:MARS conference to talk about his goals for the future of the environment. The actor said that he was launching a new foundation that would harness robotics and nanotechnology to clean up the planet. The Footprint Coalition, according to Variety, will begin operations by April 2020, with the stated aim of tidying up our home in the next decade.

The average person eats at least 50,000 particles of microplastic a year and breathes in a similar quantity, according to the first study to estimate human ingestion of plastic pollution. The true number is likely to be many times higher, as only a small number of foods and drinks have been analysed for plastic contamination. The scientists reported that drinking a lot of bottled water drastically increased the particles consumed.

We published “The Uninhabitable Earth” on Sunday night, and the response since has been extraordinary — both in volume (it is already the most-read article in New York Magazine’s history) and in kind. Within hours, the article spawned a fleet of commentary across newspapers, magazines, blogs, and Twitter, much of which came from climate scientists and the journalists who cover them.

Better understanding agriculture and the food system's unique place in climate change -- as both drivers of climate change and victims of it -- is helping to increase support for climate action. Unfortunately, progress across the food system is lagging, according to a new analysis.

In this week's issue of our environment newsletter, we examine the climate strikes happening around the world, trees as a carbon capture "technology" and reader suggestions on sustainable living.

Milestone comes just two years after Britain marked its first full day without using the fossil fuel.

The Caribbean Sea bordering Grand Cayman’s Seven Mile Beach is a startling aquamarine color. Over 1,500 miles away, the Atlantic Ocean next to Coney Island is a dark bluish-green. And Bondi blue, the color of the original iMac computer, was named after the teal hue of the Tasman Sea off the coast of the eponymous Sydney beach.

'Trees are the lifeblood of our nation, and it is more important than ever to ensure they are rooted not only in our countryside, but in our towns and cities too'

The Great Barrier Reef of Australia passed away in ... after a long illness. It was 25 million years old. For most of its life, the reef was the world’s largest living structure, and the only one visible from space. It was 1,400 miles long, with 2,900 individual reefs and 1,050 islands. In total area, it was larger than the United Kingdom, and it contained more biodiversity than all of Europe combined. It harbored 1,625 species of fish, 3,000 species of mollusk, 450 species of coral, 220 species of birds, and 30 species of whales and dolphins.

During the last round of debates in 2016, presidential hopefuls spent a whopping 5 minutes and 27 seconds talking about climate change. That’s less than they discussed the national debt. You'd think people, especially politicians, would be more interested in the single most pressing issue of our time—one that touches everything from public health to the economy to immigration to trade to the food we eat and the water we drink and the air we...

Discussions on how to address climate change have focused, very appropriately, on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, particularly those of carbon dioxide, the major contributor to climate change and a long-lived greenhouse gas. Reducing emissions should remain the paramount climate goal.

KOALAS, we all love them. Show me someone who doesn’t want what’s best for a humble little koala and I’ll show you a liar. Despite this being the case, their numbers are declining and their future as a species looks to be in serious jeopardy.

Some alarming news from the stratosphere. Chinese foam manufacturers are releasing an ozone-destroying chemical into the air that goes against an international agreement meant to fix the ozone layer, scientists announced in a study Wednesday. The chemical is a chlorofluorocarbon known as trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11), which the world agreed to phase out starting in 2010. But just in the past six years, emissions of CFC-11 have increased by around 7,000 tons each year, and the source is eastern China, the study suggests.

Satellite data plus artificial intelligence equals no place to hide.

Some of the leading scientists in the U.K. have written an open letter to the country's 100 wealthiest families, asking for an "extraordinary increase" in their funding for environmental causes, a week after research shows that climate change will make them poorer.

Sixty-five years ago, President Eisenhower took the first concrete steps toward implementing his “Atoms for Peace” initiative, presenting Soviet leaders with a detailed outline of the safety and nonproliferation rules that should guide the peaceful development of civilian nuclear energy. Three more years of determined U.S.-led diplomacy culminated in the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which continues to be pivotal in maintaining, monitoring and...

Bill Nye, popularly known as the “Science Guy,” joined Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle to discuss the actual threat of climate change and the science behind the warming of our planet. As an TV scientist and mechanical engineer, Nye is known for breaking science down into understandable terms. In speaking with Velshi & Ruhle, Nye spoke about how climate change is more gradual than disasters such as Pearl Harbor or 9/11, but the effects are still as serious, if not more.

Students around the world are walking out of lessons to demand politicians take urgent action on climate change.

New research using sediment cores suggests human-driven climate change is having a significant impact on the composition of the world’s marine plankton. A German study, published in the journal Nature, reveals that modern communities of foraminifera, a type of hard-shelled plankton, differ markedly from those from the pre-industrial era, which began just 170 years ago.

On Friday, countless young people will flood the streets of the world's major cities, demanding action to tackle climate change. The global movement stems from the stark reality that the window to addressing this emergency is closing. At the front of these demonstrations, there is frequently a banner warning that there are just "12 years to save the Earth."

Despite an alarming UN report that warns one million plant and animal species face extinction due to human activity, the Trump administration is poised to hasten species on their path to extinction by eroding critical wildlife protections. The UN’s landmark 1,500-page study, announced this week, warns that if we continue to destroy natural landscapes at rates “unprecedented in human history,” massive biodiversity loss will undermine food security, access to clean water, and sources of modern medicine by 2050.

Humans have ushered in a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, according to a panel of scientists. Experts have voted to recognise the term and the dawn of the epoch, a vast period of geological time spanning millennia, but it will be several years before the term is fully accepted.

As a wave of public consciousness concerning the environment sweeps across Europe, African cities are hoping this will translate into greater equality when it comes to fighting climate change. One of those people calling for a fairer fight is the mayor of Accra, in Ghana.

Scotland faces numerous catastrophic impacts from the climate crisis which could leave the country with polluted waters, abandoned villages, dying forests and few remaining birds, the head of the country’s environment agency is to warn. Outlining the apocalyptic scenario the country could face within the next decade, Francesca Osowska, head of Scottish Natural Heritage, will call for urgent action to tackle the environmental degradation already taking a heavy toll on Scotland.

Human-caused climate change and air pollution remain major global-scale problems and are both due mostly to fossil fuel burning. Mitigation efforts for both of these problems should be undertaken concurrently in order to maximize effectiveness. Such efforts can be accomplished largely with currently available low-carbon and carbon-free alternative energy sources like nuclear power and renewables, as well as energy efficiency improvements.

All over the world cities are grappling with apocalyptic air pollution but the capital of Mongolia is suffering from some of the worst in the world. And the problem is intrinsically linked to climate change. The country has already warmed by 2.2 degrees, forcing thousands of people to abandon the countryside and the traditional herding lifestyle every year for the smog-choked city where 90% of children are breathing toxic air every day.

When more women are involved in group decisions about how to manage land, the group conserves more—particularly when offered financial incentives, new research published this week shows.

The broadcaster, who was interviewed for the upcoming issue of Radio Times magazine said people need to be responsible when it comes to trying to keep the planet healthy.

The shade of a single tree can provide welcome relief from the hot summer sun. But when that single tree is part of a small forest, it creates a profound cooling effect. According to a study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, trees play a big role in keeping our towns and cities cool. According to the study, the right amount of tree cover can lower summer daytime temperatures by as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. And the effect is quite noticeable from neighborhood to neighborhood, even down to the scale of a single city block.