For a two-year period, an extreme drought across Colorado and much of the West dried farmers’ fields, lowered water levels in reservoirs, fueled extreme wildfires and left streams dangerously low.

Historically, an exceptional drought like the one that plagued the Western U.S. from 2020 to 2022 happened less than once every 1,000 years.

But ...Read more

A new Gold Rush is taking shape on a quiet stretch of Kansas prairie. There, a clutch of startups backed by the likes of Bill Gates are searching below the surface for naturally occurring hydrogen, a fuel that can generate power without adding to climate change.

Finding it in vast quantities would revolutionize the energy transition. But the ...Read more

Historians know that turkey and corn were part of the first Thanksgiving, when Wampanoag peoples shared a harvest meal with the pilgrims of Plymouth plantation in Massachusetts. And traditional Native American farming practices tell us that squash and beans likely were part of that 1621 dinner too.

For centuries before Europeans ...Read more

Campaign signs for the 2024 general election adorned front yards across Tampa Bay. “Vote No on Amendment 4″ next to a “Trump 2024″ sign. “Don’t make it weird” next to a “Harris Walz” one.

But now that the election is over, what can — and should — residents do with their metal posts and plastic?

Are yard signs recyclable? ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — If one oarfish landing on a beach is a sign of a disaster to come, how bad will it be if three wash up in quick succession?

A silvery 10-foot-long creature, the oarfish has fueled fisherman's tales of sea serpents — and in some cultures has been a portent of natural disasters.

It's rare to see an oarfish up close in ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal grand jury in Los Angeles voted to indict Texas-based oil refiner Phillips 66 for allegedly dumped hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater from its Carson refinery into the Los Angeles County sewer system and then failing to report it, according to a Thursday statement from the U.S. Department ...Read more

Imagine you are a blue whale swimming up the California coast, as you do every spring. You are searching for krill in the Santa Barbara Channel, a zone that teems with fish, kelp forests, seagrass beds and other undersea life, but also vibrates with noise from ship traffic. Suddenly, the noise gets louder.

You start to make a slow, ...Read more

DENVER — Federal officials released a range of scenarios Wednesday that could be used to manage the overallocated and shrinking Colorado River as time for the seven basin states to reach an agreement grows short.

The Bureau of Reclamation’s four proposed plans are not set in stone, but for the first time offer insight into how federal ...Read more

Fast fashion is everywhere – in just about every mall, in the feeds of influencers on social media promoting overconsumption, and in ads constantly popping up online.

Its focus on the continual production of new clothing is marked by speedy fashion cycles that give it its name. Fast fashion is intended to quickly copy high-end ...Read more

ORR, Minn. — Nothing seemed to stop Wolf 04D.

The wildlife biologists thought they had ended a decades-long struggle between rancher and wolf when they built a 7.5-mile fence in the heart of Minnesota’s wolf territory. Even the rancher, Wes Johnson, had high hopes when he came across a wounded deer on his land and saw that the wolves ...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri deer hunter reportedly killed a mountain lion Monday, Nov. 18, according to a social media post from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

“We are aware of an incident that occurred this past weekend in Iron County where a deer hunter killed a mountain lion,” the department wrote on Facebook on Monday. “...Read more

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a breakdown Wednesday of five potential paths forward for the fragile state-to-state negotiations surrounding Colorado River operating guidelines that must be updated by 2026.

The Colorado River, which is Southern Nevada’s primary source of water, holds a precarious future as the basin experiences ...Read more

The West Coast’s rainy season has arrived in force, as an atmospheric river carrying moisture from the tropics joins a bomb cyclone off the Pacific Northwest coast. Heavy, wet snow began falling in the mountains on Nov. 19, 2024, and bursts of rain have been blasting the Oregon and Northern California coasts. These storms are forecast to ...Read more