Down to Earth
The biodiversity crisis, explained
Fully aquatic whale-rats. Praying mantises the size of dogs. Scientists imagine the future evolution of life on Earth.
Why buzzy tech often fails to protect wildlife.
Bald eagles, bison, and ... big cats?
Fish poop transforms ocean chemistry and can store carbon for centuries.
A ruptured pipeline spewed crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, and it may foul ecosystems for years to come.
The US declared the ivory-billed woodpecker and 22 other species extinct.
This bird forecast is way more fun than any weather app.
Large tree-planting initiatives often fail — and some have even fueled deforestation. There’s a better way.
Smoke rising from forest fires contains nutrients that can cause algae populations to explode.
Grasslands are anything but wastelands.
Don’t annoy an octopus or you might get a face-full of silt.
“We have to sleep in the forest with fear.”
Hundreds of wildfires have already scorched the rainforest this year, and the worst is likely yet to come.
What do we owe animals suffering under climate-fueled drought?
Yes, we can have clean energy and tortoises too.
To save insects and help ourselves, experts say we have to rethink the regulation of poisonous chemicals.
It’s more controversial than you might think.
A toxic “red tide” is killing fish, displacing sharks, and going viral on TikTok. Is it getting worse?
A tiny insect is transforming the western US with a little help from climate change.
The renowned primatologist wants us to remember that humans aren’t so exceptional — we’re animals, too.
“This is certainly unprecedented in my career in firefighting.”
How an ancient American Indian practice can reduce the risk of massive wildfires.
Yet the threats these castles of biodiversity face are mounting.
In The Sound of the Sea, environmental journalist Cynthia Barnett explores the history and science of shells.
Many birds, mammals, and fish seem to get smaller as the temperature rises.
Planetariums for birds, tiny hats for beetles: how scientists have learned that animals look to the stars.
They say a butterfly’s wing could change the weather. How is the weather changing butterflies?
Scientists are trying to build on traditional knowledge before it’s too late.
These slippery amphibians are teaching scientists about the power of adaptation and the limits of prediction.
They reproduce without mating and are rapidly chewing through soil across the US. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about “jumping” worms.
More than 30 percent of the Earth is already conserved. Thank Indigenous people and local communities.
Scientists mapped regions where new coronaviruses may be most likely to spread from wildlife to people.
What’s a poison frog without its poison?
They’re filling up while the filling’s good.
America’s absence hurts global efforts to avert species extinction.
Brood X will leave a mark on forests and birds that will last for years.
A small but vocal opposition could obstruct an initiative to conserve 30 percent of US land by 2030.
The America the Beautiful initiative could redefine US conservation as we know it.
A new analysis of satellite imagery shows some 430,000 acres of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest have been wiped out so far in 2021.
A chat with journalist Michelle Nijhuis about her new book Beloved Beasts on the history of the modern conservation movement.