On a reporting trip in July 2023, science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert had an “amazing” stroke of luck. It was her last day in Dominica, in the Caribbean, where she’d been shadowing a group of scientists attempting to translate sperm whale vocalizations with the help of artificial intelligence. While out at sea, she and the research […]
This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Last June, record flooding swept through the rural town of Rock Valley, Iowa. As the wall of water began to overtake Chelsie Ver Mulm’s 10-acre plot of land, she rushed into action, rapidly evacuating her family’s gaggle of cows, sheep, […]
There is infrastructure everywhere to which you never pay much attention—until you have a reason to care. Once you notice, you realize you’ve been taking something for granted about the communities we’ve created. Perhaps ramps were practically invisible until you became the one in a wheelchair or pushing a kid on a stroller. But those ramps aren’t a given: it took a lot of advocacy to make cities more accessible. Or maybe traffic cameras never stand out until you get a speeding ticket. (Upon reflection, though, it’s now rare to be in public and not fall under the gaze of a security camera.)
This story was originally published by Canary Media and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. It’s a known problem that onshore wind turbines kill bats. But it’s unclear whether the same issue applies to offshore wind installations—and the Trump administration just canceled groundbreaking research into the question. Earlier this month, the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute received […]