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South Carolina surfers and other Lowcountry residents can't stop talking about two white sharks that have been spotted just off the East Coast. But these 16-foot giants may have been swimming in our waters all along.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zph835YAK7M This is what reducing chance looks like on the Australian coast: thousands of beachgoers scurrying to the water's edge of Bondi Beach in New South Wales after a siren warns of a shark sighting. The alarm was sounded on New Year's…
Yes, carrying an umbrella is the simplest way to stay dry when it's raining. For science's sake, let's just say it starts raining unexpectedly on a day when an umbrella just isn't a possibility and you have somewhere specific to be. What's the best way to get less wet…
In a place built on selective ignorance, a storm forced everyone to stop and think
ϳԹ, inside, gravity, space, time, whatever: this thing transcended every boundary
Planting bulrush in Bayou Sauvage. Photo: Joe Spring It's been seven years since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, killing more than 1,800 people and leaving molding shambles in its wake. New Orleans is still recovering, in some places more than others. This past May,…
Working on a tiger shark. Photo: Carl Meyer For 19 years, University of Hawaii scientist Carl Meyer has caught sharks up and down the Hawaiian archipelago, a…
Shark Net. Photo: Kip Evans Tagging technology now allows anyone with a computer or mobile device to follow the movements of great white sharks. Along the East Coast, people are tracking Mary Lee and Genie, two great whites. A group named…
I’ve read a lot of claims recently that exercise makes you smarter. But how, exactly, does it work?
Great white shark. Photo: Yuri Arcurs/Shutterstock Most people know George Burgess as the kahuna of shark attacks. For more than 20 years, Burgess has overseen the…
Shark fins. Photo: Elira/Shutterstock In 2000, a graduate student at the Imperial College of London named Shelley Clarke began using shark fin data from the auction houses of Hong Kong and the ports of Taiwan…
Three months after protesting the clear-cutting of forest and the use of sewage-effluent snow, Klee Benally and three other activists suddenly face half a year in prison. Leslie MacMillan tries to figure out why.
A mining town in Australia. Photo: Microstock Man/Shutterstock In Part I of this series, ϳԹ Ethics interviewed Tom Butler, co-author of Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, a new coffee table book by…
Brian Blickenstaff spent a day without his clothes on, taking baths with complete strangers
If we Americans still relied on human muscles to generate all the energy we happily consume, we'd each have 150 dedicated “energy slaves” working for us, all day, every day. Instead, we've been exploiting other forms of energy—mostly non-renewable and emissions-generating fossil fuels—for the past 150 years. But it takes…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q3YYwIsMHzwA cloud-free view from space as acquired by the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership Satellite (Suomi NPP). Over nine days in April and thirteen days in October 2012, it took 312 satellite orbits and 2.5 terabytes of data to get a clear shot of…
New research done for Protect Our Winters and the Natural Resources Defense Council puts dollar signs on something we already know: climate change is killing the snow sports industries. yuriy kulik/Shutterstock Jeremy Jones and Chris Steinkamp, founder and executive director, respectively,…
wind turbines, Banning Pass, CA. Down on the wind farm. Photo: George Wuerthner Every therm and watt of energy we consume comes from somewhere, and those sources are finite, even if they're generally well removed from our daily lives. Energy: Overdevelopment…
James Balog has spent his career pushing the artistic and adventure boundaries of nature photography. For the past five years, he's been capturing the impact of climate change on glaciers, culminating in the powerful film Chasing Ice. What he documented was catastrophic—and should be required viewing for every policymaker on earth.
Mexico City has a very real stray dog problem. Eric Nusbaum investigates all the ways—from the humane to the horrific—it's being addressed.
When it comes to holiday giving, you should never have to choose. This year, our editors have pulled together 68 perfect ideas—priced from $4 to $50,000—guaranteed to make anyone on your list feel like a million bucks.
Bags of oysters. Photo: Orin Zebest It's been a year of important milestones in Marin County, California. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes the Marin Headlands, turned 40. The Golden Gate Bridge hit 75 years. Further north, the…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/dmLYjs0kwncThe 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4 minutes and 28 seconds. Video: NOAA Visualization Lab Today marks the end of the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season, one of the busiest and costliest storm seasons in U.S. history. This season…
It snowed in the Twin Cities on Thanksgiving, and Katie Heaney went to a dog park
The Southeastern Ohio Bigfoot Investigation Society is committed to the quest for Bigfoot. But instead of finding the mythical beast, they might’ve stumbled onto something else entirely.
Photo: Ian Swanson Beach hazards abound. Your surfboard can knock you out. Corals might scrape your face off. A shark could mistake you for a seal or, more likely, you might bump into a jellyfish. Those are risks most of us willingly accept. But when…
If she's approved for the job, one of Rice's first tasks will be considering—and potentially approving—the controversial Keystone XL pipeline mega-project that would expand the tar sands industry
These days, screen-addicted Americans are more stressed out and distracted than ever. And there’s no app for that. But there is a radically simple remedy: get outside. Florence Williams travels to the deep woods of Japan, where researchers are backing up the theory that nature can lower your blood pressure, fight off depression—and even prevent cancer.
In early November, a South African court sentenced a Thai man to 40 years in prison after he pled guilty to organizing illegal rhino poaching activities. The high-profile case of Chumlong Lemtongthai will likely have…
My parents ignored the dire warnings about Hurricane Sandy and didn't evacuate. By the time they called for rescue, it was too late.
Adam Bradley's view of the Yukon River. Photo: Adam Bradley If you follow notable (read: crazy) solo expeditions, you likely recognize the name Adam Bradley—or Krudmeister, as his friends call him. In 2009, Bradley set a record for the fastest unsupported through-hike of…
When astronaut Donald Pettit heads into space with his 10 cameras, his goal is to collect data about the earth and the stars. Often, his images end up as art. Anyone with a computer can download the photos he takes from the cupola—the glass turret…
Ascending Mount Lenin. Photo: Hari Mix Is Hari Mix a mountaineer with a science habit or a scientist with a mountaineering habit? “I'm not sure,” says the 27-year-old Ph.D. candidate in Environmental Earth Systems Science at Stanford University. “They're definitely related,…
Seaside Heights. Photo: Google/NOAA After Hurricane Gloria damaged the New Jersey coast in 1985, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asked the state’s Department of…
Ken Burns talks about his latest documentary and why a 1930s disaster means so much in the present day
Photo: Manuel|MC “Leave only footprints” may be the outdoor industry ethos, but Greenpeace says a study it recently conducted revealed troubling indications that the apparel made for outdoor recreation contains persistent chemicals, some of which are…
Three ϳԹ readers tell us how the magazine led them to do something different
Leslie MacMillan investigates the questionable destruction of a Crow Indian religious site in Montana
Not pretty, but powerful. Part of the Elk Creek methane-to-energy system. Photo: Vessels Coal Gas Before it was at the vanguard of North American luxury ski resorts, Aspen, Colorado, was a mining town. Now, Aspen Skiing Company has made a $5.4 million…
International humanitarian-aid group Doctors Without Borders, best known for conducting emergency health care interventions in war-torn countries, set up a makeshift clinic for Hurricane Sandy victims in one of New York’s worst-hit communities to fill in the gaps in the government’s response. Matthew Power joined volunteer physicians for a day in the field duri
Sandy passing west of Hispaniola. Photo: NASA Goddard Hurricane Sandy did not hit Haiti directly. It passed to the west, crossing over Cuba. Even so, it dropped roughly 20 inches of rain on…
Hurricane Sandy after landfall. Photo: NASA Goddard A couple of weeks ago, Andrew Revkin celebrated the fifth birthday of his…
Yesterday, Vimeo selected a video called Rockaway Needs Us as a staff pick. It's just the latest video that shows the effects of Sandy, from the recreational to devastation. The shorts range from a…
https://www.youtube.com/embed/RhQktHY9aZgA video showing Sandy’s life from October 23 to October 31. It was as a nine-year-old kid in Reading, Pennsylvania, that University of Miami scientist Brian McNoldy developed a fascination with hurricanes. “I think most of us have a storm,” he…
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Kate Rawles on her Mexico-to-Canada tour. Photo: Chris Loynes Kate Rawles is an outdoor philosopher. That is a title she coined herself, and it is accurate in more than one way. She spends her professional life thinking about, talking about,…
A view of the changed coastline in New Jersey. Photo: NASA Goddard Instead of gathering a widespread assortment of the week's best articles, videos, and photos, I've included the most thought-provoking and eye-opening articles on Sandy and her aftermath. Some…
What's it like to watch the Storm of the Century hit your home from 2,000 miles away?
After wandering to a bar in Sandy's aftermath, Jason Diamond was reminded of the best parts about living in New York
Here is a view of Sandy's life from above. It was recorded by NASA's GOES-13 Satellite. It begins on October 23, when Tropical Depression 18 morphed into Tropical Storm Sandy. Before that, on October 22, at roughly 11:00 a.m., about 320 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica, a hot towering…
NYC, Avenue C at East 6th Street, Oct. 29, 2012. Photo: David Shankbone/Flickr The loss of life and property damage from Superstorm Sandy is still being tallied, but the catastrophe is pointing a spotlight on the need for cities to adapt…
Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy as seen from space Photo: NOAA GOES-13 When Hurricane Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City, New Jersey, around 8 p.m. last night, it lived up to the deadly reputation forecasters feared, and the death toll from the storm has continued to rise…
Hurricane Sandy expands, taken Sunday, October 28, at 9:00 a.m. Photo: NOAA GOES-13 Satellite As scientists feared late last week, Hurricane Sandy has morphed into…
Heidi Volpe speaks with Rich Roll about his transformation from addict to ultra-endurance athlete
The Revenue Cutter Thomas Corwin, in which John Muir sailed as part of an Arctic research trip. Photo: Frank H. Nowell In July 1879, 33 Navy men set sail for the North Pole aboard the U.S.S. Jeannette Arctic expedition. That…
Left: BLM land open to solar development before 2011; right: BLM's current 17 solar energy zone. Maps: NRDC Wind, solar, geothermal and other so-called green energy sources might not spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but they're far from benign. Ask any bird conservationist…
Rick Paulas takes a look at Allen Carr's The Easy Way to Stop Smoking and wonders if the author might actually be right
Bikini Atoll, a tiny ring of islands halfway between Hawaii and Australia, is a world-class diving destination and home to one of the Pacific's last great fishing grounds. So where are all the tourists? Welcome to heaven on earth, where the vestiges of hell lie just below the surface.
Oskar Blues' cannery row. Photo: Ryan Dearth By Will McGough, Wake and Wander Growing up outside of Philadelphia, it was never much of a decision. There were no mountains to climb. We lived the city life…
Lees Ferry is the only place within Glen Canyon where visitors can drive to the Colorado River in over 700 miles of Canyon Country, right up to the first "rapid" in the Grand Canyon. Here at the very start of the Grand Canyon, adventurous river runners launch…
Leaves of three, leave it be. Photo: Shutterstock When I was in seventh grade, my parents took my six siblings and I out of school for a late spring vacation to the East Coast. We camped along the way and eventually…
Looking for which candidate's economic beliefs are best suited to the present day? Wondering who's better suited to take office should the next president become incapacitated? Well, you've come to the wrong place.
Snow gunning. Photo: Tim in Syndey/Flickr Pointing to the sacredness of the San Francisco Peaks north of Flagstaff, Arizona, a coalition of Native American tribes has been fighting the development and expansion of Arizona Snowbowl ski resort since 1979. It remains…
Aurora Borealis as seen from Space. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Flickr On October 4 and 5, a coronal mass ejection from the sun sent an explosion of particles speeding toward earth. Three days later, those particles hit the earth's magnetic…
Explaining four of the most common threats in the outdoors
Gannets. Photo: Winged Planet When filmmaker John Downer was in elementary school, he got down in the dirt of his parents' garden so that he could film the insects, frogs, and toads using a Super 8 camera.
Ever wondered how to survive a volcanic eruption? Not sure what to do when zombies inevitably take over? Don't worry, we've got you covered.
ϳԹ readers love to lend a hand. Here, a longtime subscriber and former energy executive shows us how to take it to another level.
The video doesn't show the spark, the inciting moment that led the impala herd to bolt across the road directly into the path of a leopard crouching in the tall grass. But it does show the climax, the predator exploding from the brush into an esophagus-targeted leap that lands…
On May 30, 2012, at 3:00 P.M. MST, a series of thunderstorms formed over central and south central Kansas. They dropped golf ball-sized hail before lining up into a dark vanguard that barraged the countryside ahead with 70 mile…
Great white shark. Photo: David Stephens/Shutterstock On Thursday, the government of Western Australia released a plan that will allow the killing of great white sharks that venture…
Jugita Krilaviciute, left, works the soil during the Vail Resorts Hayman Restoration Project in the Trail Creek drainage on Thursday, June 2, 2011. The Vail Resorts Hayman Restoration Project is in the second of a three year, $750,000 partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and The Rocky…
A reindeer running in Norway. Photo: Shutterstock Here's something that might not surprise: Scientists have used a model to predict that if a formation of 241 snowkiters were to fly across…
An Italian chef, a pro snowboarder, and five other Sun Valley, Idaho, locals tell you the best way to play in one of America's most pristine mountain towns