Climate

Harder, Faster, Stronger

Spokane Shows What the New Era of Wildfires Looks Like

With rising temperatures and drier conditions, fires are more likely to explode. And with more people living next to forests, the results can be catastrophic.

Sachi Kitajima Mulkey

Make It Stop

What’s Behind the Heat Wave Scorching Huge Parts of the World

Molly Taft

It’s Alive!

How to Bring a Geothermal Well Back From the Dead

Molly Taft

Regulations and Solutions

AI Could Help Fossil Fuel Companies Create More Emissions

New research finds that by making the fossil fuel industry more productive, AI could help increase carbon emissions by up to nearly 5 percent—vastly outpacing the impact of data centers.

Molly Taft

Harness the Power of the Sun With the Best Solar Generators

If you want to capture the sun’s power with solar panels, these are the best solar generators I’ve tested.

Simon Hill

DeepMind Says Its AI Can Predict Hurricanes Earlier Than Everyone Else

Its WeatherNext model, which will be open-sourced, can accurately predict a storm’s track and intensity using lower-resolution weather data. Researchers don’t yet fully understand how it does this.

Victoria Turk

China’s EV Market Is Booming. There’s Just One Problem

More EVs reaching the end of their life means more batteries to recycle. But waste management companies have yet to catch up to the new reality.

Andrew Liu

Oceans and Waterways

New Steel, Gravity-Fed Water Filters Aim to Cut Out Plastic

In a world of plasticky water filter pitchers, I tested three new-generation stainless steel filter systems.

Matthew Korfhage

El Niño Is Already Wreaking Havoc on Pacific Fisheries

As the climate phenomenon sends warm water surging across the eastern Pacific, some parts of the fishing industry are suffering—but other regions are seeing a windfall.

Joseph Winters

What Happens if China Hacks the US Water Supply? I Went to a Secret War Game to Find Out

Burst water mains. Evacuated hospitals. In a closed-door simulation, insurers played out their response to a mass disruption by China’s Volt Typhoon hackers—and found a nightmare scenario.

Andy Greenberg

Even the Internet’s Favorite Pool Guy Doesn’t Know How to Fix the Reflecting Pool

Algae blooms, peeling paint, and a host of fixes from hydrogen peroxide to nanobubblers have made it hard to diagnose what’s wrong with the Reflecting Pool—let alone how to clean up the mess.

Molly Taft