The fossa, Madagascar’s largest predator, is a cat-like carnivore that eats everything from insects to lemurs. Because they are rare and elusive, scientists know very little about them, including how many there are.
Environmental regulations generally improve communities’ preparedness and resilience during disasters.
AP Photo/Gerald Herbert
The damage to coal ash sites from Hurricane Florence demonstrates how a community’s vulnerability to natural disasters is closely linked to how stringent environmental regulations are.
A sunny day evacuation days before Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina.
AP Photo/Tom Copeland
Widespread flooding in North Carolina from Hurricane Florence shows the need for better advance planning in inland areas of the south and mid-Atlantic, especially near rivers.
Cumberland Island National Seashore off the coast of Georgia.
NPS
How do the narrow ribbons of sand that line the Atlantic and Gulf coasts withstand the force of hurricanes? The answer lies in their shape-shifting abilities.
Florida’s Turkey Point Nuclear Plant shut down 12 hours before Hurricane Andrew made landfall in 1992.
AP Photo/Phil Sandlin
Morten Wendelbo, American University School of Public Affairs
Thousands died after Hurricane Maria, but it did not have to be that way. Early evidence should have led the government to a much stronger response.
Rising tides move closer to the dunes in Kill Devil Hills, N.C., Sept. 13, 2018, as Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast.
AP Photo/Gerry Broome
Many factors can influence people to evacuate or stay in place when disasters loom. Research using Facebook posts suggests that people with broad social networks are more apt to get moving.
Farm near Seven Springs, North Carolina, surrounded by water on Oct. 25, 1999, nearly six weeks after Hurricane Floyd.
AP Photo/Karen Tam
Hurricanes in the southern US have caused widespread damage inland in recent decades, mainly through river flooding. But evacuations and stormproofing focus almost entirely on keeping people safe on the coasts.
Freshwater cypress swamp, First Landing State Park, Va.
VA State Parks
Wetlands are some of the world’s most undervalued weapons against climate change. They store huge quantities of carbon – but without better protection, many could soon be drained or paved over.
Monitoring the flow of electrical power at the California Independent System Operator grid control center.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
How do experts know when and where the next big hurricane is going to hit? A look at the complicated science of forecasting.
Weather towers like this one in a park in Vienna were a popular way for the 19th-century public to track the influence of weather on their lives.
Source: Wikimedia
Climate science in the computer age is the pursuit of elite scientists. A historian of science sees an upside to the popular, participatory approach of studying changes to the climate from the 19th century.
Divestment rally at Harvard University, April 17, 2015.
350.org
Many students and professors at US colleges and universities want their schools to divest holdings in fossil fuel companies, but it’s a hard sell for school administrators.
The Morris Inn on the University of Notre Dame campus has had a green roof since 2013.
Ashish Sharma
Taking this step may improve the quality of life for vulnerable people and reduce the amount of air conditioning they use, making their neighborhoods less prone to power outages.
Street in Hangzhou, China, with trees separating a cycle track from road traffic and from the sidewalk.
Xu Wen
Many US cities are investing in bike infrastructure and shade trees. Properly located, these additions can make streets cooler, cleaner and safer for all users – even those who drive.
Bloede Dam (ca. 2016) near Ilchester, Maryland.
Matthew Baker/UMBC
New research shows that injecting wastewater deep underground can cause earthquakes far from the injection site. It also raises questions about which rock layers are the safest injection targets.
The shrinking supply of Colorado River water is evident at the Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Taking millions of gallons of water permanently out of the Colorado River amid a prolonged drought would surely start an interstate fight.
The 2016 Maple fire (photographed in July 2017) reburned young forests that had regenerated after the 1988 Yellowstone fires. More frequent high-severity fires are expected in the future as climate warms, which may change patterns of forest recovery.
Monica Turner
Huge fires roared through Yellowstone National Park in the summer of 1988, scorching one-third of the park. Since then the park has been a valuable lab for studying how forests recover from fires.
Beach erosion in Nags Head, North Carolina, photographed May 15, 2005.
Soil Science
Many US coastal towns are building defenses to protect against rising seas and storms. This can encourage people to stay in place when they should be moving inland.