Environmental Science

Rising sea levels, increased flood and extreme heat are all signs of climate change. Cities are trying some innovate strategies to cope with and mitigate these events.

By Dave Roos

Ever wondered what's the difference between a river, a stream, a brook and a tributary?

By Amanda Onion

Getting your home to zero waste doesn't have to mean re-structuring your entire life. Sure, you'll have to make changes, but most of them are surprisingly easy.

By John Donovan

Ocean water is not actually blue, but appears in different shades for many reasons.

By Amanda Onion

The Sahara has expanded by about 10 percent in the past century, mostly due to natural causes, but not all. We can blame the rest on man-made climate change.

By Kristen Hall-Geisler

Plastic may be the longest-lasting legacy of human beings on this planet. But there are lots of ways, big and small, that we can all stop using it. Today.

By Jesslyn Shields

Climate change may be melting glaciers, but it's also reducing the oxygen of the world's oceans. Without oxygen, many marine organisms may no longer be able to survive.

By John Perritano

As the world becomes more urbanized, the demand for sand, a key ingredient of concrete, keeps growing. But there's only so much sand to go around.

By Dave Roos

Talk about a Brexit! Scientists have clues to catastrophic flooding that destroyed a land bridge that once connected England and France.

By Patrick J. Kiger

New findings about ancient, extinct Australasian bandicoot and bilby species underscore how dire things are today when even survivors like these are struggling.

By Jesslyn Shields

Most mammals have a penis bone called a baculum, but humans don't. A new study sheds light on the history of the baculum, and why ours is missing.

By Jesslyn Shields

Now that its sequel is out, where did Al Gore's landmark environmental documentary hit the mark? What did it get wrong?

By Patrick J. Kiger

A new 'atlas' of light pollution finds that one third of people on Earth can't see the night sky's most dramatic feature.

By Christopher Hassiotis

The OneLessStraw campaign encourages people to kick their straw habit to keep plastic from harming the environment.

By Kate Kershner

Science has determined that disappearing completely into quicksand isn't possible - but that doesn't mean that getting stuck still won't kill you.

By Patrick J. Kiger

Surprisingly, living in a city with a high level of natural radiation doesn't have any ill effects.

By Alia Hoyt

The circle is only 5,000 miles wide.

By Jesslyn Shields

The Denmark Strait cataract dwarfs every other waterfall in the world, but you can't see it because it's deep under the Atlantic Ocean.

By Jesslyn Shields

Buckingham Palace announced that Queen Elizabeth II is making changes to the Royals solid-wasted plan, and that includes banning many plastics.

By John Perritano

Helium balloons are dangerous to the environment and wildlife - so why isn't releasing them illegal?

By Jesslyn Shields

The Great Lakes are named so for several reasons. HowStuffWorks looks at why the Great Lakes are so great, including their impressive depths.

By Mark Mancini

Petrified wood can be found all over the world, but how is it created?

By Mark Mancini & Desiree Bowie

Wine pomace - the portion of grapes left over from winemaking - has a variety of uses, from fertilizer to a nutrition-enhancing ingredient in foods.

By Patrick J. Kiger

The spring, or vernal, equinox traditionally marks the first day of spring - but climate scientists use a different date altogether. Find out more about this and other facts about the spring equinox.

By Mark Mancini

The experts have seen people trying to recycle bowling balls and curling irons. They call it 'wishful recycling'. But paper and plastic items can be problematic too.

By Dave Roos