Agenda spat at UN climate talks as top official sees chance to ask ‘difficult questions’ in Dubai
June 5, 2023 GMTBERLIN (AP) — Nations resumed talks on tackling global warming Monday with the aim of shaping a deal that might put the world on track to prevent a dangerous increase in temperatures, as the U.N.'s top climate official called for deep cuts in fossil fuel use.
New Jersey utilities float solar panels on reservoir, powering water treatment plant
June 6, 2023 GMTMILLBURN, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey's Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day.
Each one of those gallons weighs seven pounds, so it is quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area.
Small-brained ancient human cousins may have buried their dead, according to a surprising study
June 5, 2023 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — An ancient human cousin may have buried its dead and carved symbols into cave walls, surprising findings for a creature with a small brain.
Fossil remains of the species — named Homo naledi — were uncovered in underground caves in South Africa a decade ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — DNA is all around us — even in the air we breathe. Now scientists have found that air quality monitoring stations — which pull in air to test for pollution — also pick up lots of DNA that can reveal what plants and animals have been in the area.
Ukrainian dam breach: What is happening and what’s at stake
June 6, 2023 GMTKYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The dramatic rupture of the dam that upheld Ukraine's largest reservoir released a torrent of water Tuesday, raising fears of widespread damage and flooding in areas where tens of thousands of people live.
Amount of warming triggering carbon dioxide in air hits new peak, growing at near-record fast rate
June 5, 2023 GMTThe cause of global warming is showing no signs of slowing as heat-trapping carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere increased to record highs in its annual Spring peak, jumping at one of the fastest rates on record, officials announced Monday.
First-of-its-kind Mars livestream by ESA spacecraft interrupted at times by rain on Earth
June 2, 2023 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A European spacecraft around Mars sent its first livestream from the red planet to Earth on Friday to mark the 20th anniversary of its launch, but rain in Spain interfered at times.
Tropical Storm Arlene, 1st of season, forms in Gulf of Mexico
June 2, 2023 GMTMIAMI (AP) — Tropical Storm Arlene, the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, formed Friday in the Gulf of Mexico on a track taking the cyclone south toward the western tip of Cuba.
Report: Buffalo’s snow-removal equipment, communications fell short during deadly blizzard
June 3, 2023 GMTBUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Buffalo's snow-removal fleet was no match for the historic Christmas week blizzard that left 31 people dead in the city, and officials fell short in issuing warnings and providing shelter, according to a report released Friday.
Honeybee health blooms at federal facilities across the country
June 3, 2023 GMTCONCORD, N.H. (AP) — While judges, lawyers and support staff at the federal courthouse in Concord, New Hampshire, keep the American justice system buzzing, thousands of humble honeybees on the building’s roof are playing their part in a more important task — feeding the world.
MIAMI (AP) — It's time for residents along the southeastern U.S. coastlines to make sure their storm plans are in place as the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season got underway Thursday.
Restoration lags for Syria’s famed Roman ruins at Palmyra and other war-battered historic sites
June 2, 2023 GMTPALMYRA, Syria (AP) — At the height of the Islamic State group's rampage across Syria, the world watched in horror as the militants blew up an iconic arch and temple in the country’s famed Roman ruins in Palmyra.
Woman walking on California beach finds ancient mastodon tooth
June 2, 2023 GMTAPTOS, Calif. (AP) — A woman taking a Memorial Day weekend stroll on a California beach found something unusual sticking out of the sand: a tooth from an ancient mastodon.
But then the fossil vanished, and it took a media blitz and a kind-hearted jogger to find it again.
Soaring rhetoric: NASA mission will carry Poet Laureate Ada Limón’s words to Jupiter
June 1, 2023 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — A new work by U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón, written for an upcoming NASA mission to Jupiter's moon Europa, is a glance at outer space that returns back to Earth.
Limón's “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” which she read Thursday night during a ceremony at the Library of Congress, is part of NASA's “ Message In a Bottle Campaign ” as the aeronautics and space administration prepares for a years-long journey.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Boeing’s astronaut capsule faces more launch delays after the discovery of problems that should have been caught earlier, officials said.
Boeing and NASA announced the latest setback Thursday.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s Congress has stripped powers away from the country's new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, both led by women environmentalists.
Newly discovered stone tools drag dawn of Greek archaeology back by a quarter-million years
June 1, 2023 GMTATHENS, Greece (AP) — Deep in an open coal mine in southern Greece, researchers have discovered the antiquities-rich country's oldest archaeological site, which dates to 700,000 years ago and is associated with modern humans’ hominin ancestors.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — As the aviation industry seeks to cut its carbon footprint, Boeing has just signed a deal to help its quest for a sustainable jet fuel, and it's tied to an unlikely source: the ocean.
NAHA, Japan (AP) — A weakened Tropical Storm Mawar headed toward Japan's southern archipelago of Okinawa on Thursday, leading businesses and the airport to close and fishermen to batten down their boats in preparation.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA held its first public meeting on UFOs on Wednesday a year after launching a study into unexplained sightings and insisted it's not hiding anything.
Earth is ‘really quite sick now’ and in danger zone in nearly all ecological ways, study says
May 31, 2023 GMTEarth has pushed past seven out of eight scientifically established safety limits and into “the danger zone,” not just for an overheating planet that's losing its natural areas, but for the well-being of people living on it, according to a new study.
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — An unprecedented string of wildfires in Canada's Atlantic-coast province of Nova Scotia continued to burn out of control for a fourth day on Wednesday, preventing thousands of evacuees from trying to see if their homes have been destroyed.
Private flight with 2 Saudi astronauts returns from space station with Gulf of Mexico splashdown
May 31, 2023 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private flight carrying two Saudi astronauts and other passengers returned to Earth late Tuesday night after a nine-day trip to the International Space Station.
China launches new crew for space station, with eye to putting astronauts on moon before 2030
May 30, 2023 GMTBEIJING (AP) — China launched a new three-person crew for its orbiting space station on Tuesday, with an eye to putting astronauts on the moon before the end of the decade.
China plans to land astronauts on moon before 2030, expand space station, bring on foreign partners
May 29, 2023 GMTBEIJING (AP) — China’s burgeoning space program plans to place astronauts on the moon before 2030 and expand the country's orbiting space station, officials said Monday.
Thousands evacuated as Philippines warns of flooding, landslides from approaching Typhoon Mawar
May 29, 2023 GMTMANILA, Philippines (AP) — Philippine officials began evacuating thousands of villagers, shut down schools and offices and imposed a no-sail ban Monday as Typhoon Mawar approached the country’s northern provinces a week after battering the U.S.
IAEA team in Japan for final review before planned discharge of Fukushima nuclear plant water
May 29, 2023 GMTTOKYO (AP) — An International Atomic Energy Agency team arrived in Tokyo on Monday for a final review before Japan begins releasing massive amounts of treated radioactive water into the sea from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, a plan that has been strongly opposed by local fishing communities and neighboring countries.
SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government announced Friday that a U.N. Latin America regional group has endorsed a Brazilian city in the Amazon region to host the 2025 U.N. climate change conference, though the world body has not yet publicly confirmed the venue.
SANTIAGO XALITZINTLA, Mexico (AP) — When the Popocatepetl volcano reawakened in 1994, Mexican scientists needed people in the area who could be their eyes and ears. State police helped them find one, Nefi de Aquino, a farmer then in his 40s who lived beside the volcano.
Crash of private Japanese moon lander blamed on software, last-minute location switch
May 26, 2023 GMTCAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A private Japanese moon lander went into free-fall while trying to land on the lunar surface last month, company officials said Friday, blaming a software issue and a last-minute switch in the touchdown location.
Elon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink says it has US approval to begin trials in people
May 26, 2023 GMTElon Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink says it's gotten permission from U.S. regulators to begin testing its device in people.
The company made the announcement on Twitter Thursday evening but has provided no details about a potential study, which was not listed on the U.S.
Three cheetah cubs die in India amid sweltering heat wave
May 26, 2023 GMTNEW DELHI (AP) — Three cheetah cubs born to a big cat that was brought to India from Africa last year died in central India’s Kuno National Park in the past week, forest officials said, as a heat wave in the region sent temperatures soaring.
How busy will Atlantic hurricane season be? Depends on who wins unusual battle of climatic titans
May 26, 2023 GMTTwo clashing climatic behemoths, one natural and one with human fingerprints, will square off this summer to determine how quiet or chaotic the Atlantic hurricane season will be.
An El Nino is brewing and the natural weather event dramatically dampens hurricane activity.
Virgin Galactic completes final test flight before launching paying customers to space
May 26, 2023 GMTALBUQUERQUE, N.M (AP) — Virgin Galactic completed what is expected to be its final test flight Thursday before taking paying customers on brief trips to space, marking what the space tourism company described as a “fantastic achievement” in what has been a long road to commercial operations.
New Bedford once lit the world with whale oil. Now it wants to do the same with wind power
May 25, 2023 GMTNEW BEDFORD, Mass. (AP) — New Bedford was once the city that lit the world, exporting vast quantities of whale oil for lamps in the early 1800s. Workers packed the docks, unloading casks of oil that had been extracted at sea from whale carcasses and brought in by a fleet of hundreds of whaling ships.
Japan nuclear watchdog asks Fukushima plant operator to assess risk from reactor damage
May 25, 2023 GMTTOKYO (AP) — A nuclear watchdog has asked the operator of Japan’s wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant to assess possible risks resulting from damage that was found in a key supporting structure inside one of the three melted reactors.
As India’s electrical grid strains, rural hospitals and clinics find reliable power in rooftop solar
May 25, 2023 GMTRAICHUR, India (AP) — In the searing heat that often envelops Raichur, an ancient town in southern India, a ceiling fan that spins without interruption brings sweet relief for the newborn babies and their mothers at the Government Maternity Hospital.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Energy security concerns — worsened by the war in Ukraine — and policy support from rich countries are likely to help investments in clean energy outpace spending on fossil fuels, the International Energy Agency said in a report issued Thursday.
Flying drones and chasing data, Indigenous women in Guyana join fight against climate change
May 25, 2023 GMTRUBY VILLAGE, Guyana (AP) — A small group of Indigenous women in northern Guyana are the latest weapon in the fight against climate change in this South American country where 90% of the population lives below sea level.
What makes a storm a typhoon? What’s a super typhoon?
May 25, 2023 GMTTyphoon Mawar was a Category 4 super typhoon with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph (241 kph) or greater when it crossed the northern tip of Guam on Wednesday night.
Yellowstone baby bison put to death after visitor picks it up, leading herd to reject it
May 24, 2023 GMTYELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — A man who picked up a bison calf in Yellowstone National Park caused it to be shunned by its herd, prompting park officials to kill the animal rather than allow it to be a hazard to visitors.
MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — After more than a decade of controversy and delays, the nation's most secure biosecurity laboratory for research on potentially deadly animal and plant diseases has opened in Manhattan, Kansas.
Lolita the whale may someday return to wild, Miami park says, but timeline uncertain
May 24, 2023 GMTMIAMI (AP) — Caregivers at a South Florida ocean park are taking steps to prepare Lolita, an orca whale held captive for more than a half-century, for a possible return to her home waters in Washington’s Puget Sound.
Danish masters prepped canvases with leftovers from brewing beer
May 24, 2023 GMTNEW YORK (AP) — Danish painters in the 19th century may have turned to an unusual source for some of their supplies: breweries.
Researchers examined paintings from the Danish Golden Age and found traces of yeast and grains.
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Newly fitted with tracking bands, four peregrine falcon chicks named Pickles, Muhammad, Egbert and Swooper have a nest in one of the best seats — make that perches — at Michigan State University's football stadium.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Sea urchins in Israel's Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, researchers announced Wednesday — a development that threatens the Red Sea’s prized coral reef ecosystems.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — In the depths of the Amazon, Brazil is building an otherworldly structure — a complex of towers arrayed in six rings, poised to spray mists of carbon dioxide into the rainforest.
South Korea experts say Japan carefully answered questions on plan to release radioactive water
May 24, 2023 GMTTOKYO (AP) — The head of a South Korean team of experts said Wednesday they saw all of the facilities they had requested to visit at Japan’s tsunami-wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant and Japanese officials had carefully answered their questions about a contentious plan to release treated but still slightly radioactive water into the sea, a sign of a further thawing of ties between the countries.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea canceled its planned launch Wednesday of its first commercial-grade satellite due to a technical issue, days after rival North Korea reaffirmed its push to place its first military spy satellite into orbit.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's push to become a bigger player in the clean energy market is in the spotlight this week at a conference convened by its Republican governor, even as the state continues to embrace new fossil fuel production, including the controversial Willow oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's government is facing a major test after two junior partners in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition sparred publicly over a key element in the country's ambitious climate policy.
LONDON (AP) — Climate change protesters were dragged away as they tried to storm the stage at Shell’s shareholder meeting Tuesday, while activist investors added pressure with a resolution demanding the global oil and gas giant beef up its emissions strategy.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Station rolled out the welcome mat Monday for two Saudi visitors, including the kingdom's first female astronaut.
SpaceX's chartered flight arrived at the orbiting lab less than 16 hours after blasting off from Florida. The four guests will spend just over a week there, before returning to Earth in their capsule.
Book Review: In ‘Brave the Wild River,’ the true story of 2 scientists who explored the Grand Canyon
May 22, 2023 GMTPHOENIX (AP) — “Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon” by Melissa L. Sevigny (W. W. Norton & Company)
Long before climate change threatened the very existence of the Colorado River, two women botanists set off with a group of amateur boatmen to record the plants that lived along what was then the most dangerous river in the world.
NORTH WILDWOOD, N.J. (AP) — A bulldozer began moving sand along a stretch of badly eroded beach Monday in a Jersey Shore town where the bitter fight over how to protect its rapidly shrinking shoreline has led to $33 million worth of litigation.
In the Amazon, Brazilian ecologists try new approach against deforestation and poverty
May 22, 2023 GMTCARAUARI, Brazil (AP) — In a remote corner of the Amazon, Brazilian ecologists are trying to succeed where a lack of governance has proved disastrous. They're managing a stretch of land in a way that welcomes both local people and scientists to engage in preserving the world’s largest tropical forest.
India scorched by extreme heat with monsoon rains delayed
May 22, 2023 GMTLUCKNOW, India (AP) — Swathes of India from the northwest to the southeast braced for more scorching heat Monday, with New Delhi under a severe weather alert, as extreme temperatures strike parts of the country.
UN agency: 2M killed, $4.3 trillion in damages from extreme weather over past half-century
May 22, 2023 GMTGENEVA (AP) — The economic damage of weather- and climate-related disasters continues to rise, even as improvements in early warning have helped reduce the human toll, the U.N. weather agency said Monday.