Are Ocean Plastics Cleanup Efforts Helping—or Hurting?
Workers for environmental nonprofit, The Ocean Cleanup. Cover Images/ZUMA This story was originally published by Slate and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Rebecca Helm despises the phrase “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” This moniker is used to describe the vast stretch of ocean from the West Coast of North America to Japan that is…
Massive Global Study Shows “Rapid and Accelerating” Groundwater Loss
David Roth, President of the Cecelia Packing, in front of a new orange crop after the Central Valley region’s catastrophic water shortages.Renée C. Byer/ZUMA This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Groundwater supplies are dwindling in aquifers around the world, a groundbreaking new study found,…
These Billionaires Want to Disrupt Death—and Keep Their Fortunes Forever
Tara Jacoby Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also…
Why the COP28 Climate Pact Likely Won’t Cut It
A polar bear walking on melting ice caps in Greenland.Media Drum World/Zuma This story was originally published by Yale E360 and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Climate negotiators meeting in Dubai last month pledged to chart a course for stabilizing the climate system using good science. But many scientists say these promises are at…
The Race to Save the Great Salt Lake
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Water is life. It’s also big business. In our November + December 2023 issue, Mother Jones dives into the West’s deepening water crisis—and the forces behind it, from historic drought to short-sighted policies to corrupt lawmakers and the special…
Invisible Gas Clouds Are Warming the Poles Faster Than We Predicted
Iceberg A-23A, drifting northward across the Weddell Sea. NASA Earth/ZUMA This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. If you had lived some 50 million years ago and taken a trip to the poles, you would have found lush forests and creatures like crocodiles instead of miles-thick ice…