We Know Wildfire Smoke Is Terrible for You. But What Does It Do to Cows?
Marty Bicek/ZUMA Wire This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. California’s wildfire season has kicked off in earnest, with the Oak Fire chewing extraordinarily quickly through the parched landscape around Yosemite National Park. The fire has burned nearly 17,000 acres so far, forcing thousands from their homes and blanketing the…
A Plane of Monkeys, a Pandemic, and a Botched Deal: Inside the Science Crisis You’ve Never Heard Of
Facts matter: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter. Support our nonprofit reporting. Subscribe to our print magazine.On May 15, 2020, a US-bound cargo plane was scheduled to depart Mauritius, an island about the size of Maui that’s just east of Madagascar. There were four key things I knew about the flight: It…
Hundreds of Little Blue Penguins Washing Up Dead on New Zealand Beaches
Little blue penguins at a New Zealand preserve in 2021.Guo Lei/Xinhua via ZUMA Press This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The penguins lie in orderly, evenly spaced rows, wings splayed, their trademark glossy blue plumage dulled by sand. There are 183 in all, carefully collected by…
Ed Yong Would Like America to Have a Bit More Empathy, Please
Facts matter: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter. Support our nonprofit reporting. Subscribe to our print magazine.The catfish, it turns out, is one hell of a taster. And I don’t mean that they are good-tasting, as in, fried, battered, and served on a baguette. (I’ll leave that distinction up to you.) I…
An Animal Hoarder’s Son Dropped 500 Parakeets in 7 Cages at a Michigan Shelter
A couple of parakeets behind bars? Okay. Seventy-one in one cage? No.wonry/Getty Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.I lived nextdoor to a Cat Person once—you know, the kind who feeds and maintains dozens of feral or semi-feral kitties. As a lower-case cat…
Hero: Fernanda the Tortoise, Whose Species Everyone Thought Was Extinct
Mother Jones illustration; Magdalena Kula Manchee/Unsplash Fight disinformation. Get a daily recap of the facts that matter. Sign up for the free Mother Jones newsletter.As usual, the staff of Mother Jones is rounding up the heroes and monsters of the past year. Find all of 2021’s heroes and monsters here. There is, quite possibly, no organism as…