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Stuart Gleave / Getty The Anthropocene Is a Joke
On geological timescales, human civilization is an event, not an epoch.
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John Schults / Reuters When a Killer Climate Catastrophe Struck the World's Oceans
The worst extinction in Earth’s history offers chilling predictions for the planet’s future—and for humanity’s efforts to keep climate doom at bay.
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Bob Strong / Reuters A Climate Catastrophe Paved the Way for the Dinosaurs’ Reign
“The need to understand strange events like the Carnian Pluvial Episode has taken on new urgency."
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Mike Hutchings / Reuters Scientists Have Uncovered a Disturbing Climate Change Precedent
During the rise of mammals, Earth's temperatures spiked in a scary way that the planet may experience again soon.
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Zoë van Dijk Why Earth's History Appears So Miraculous
The strange, cosmic reason our evolutionary path will look ever luckier the longer we survive
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NASA / AP A Foreboding Similarity in Today’s Oceans and a 94-Million-Year-Old Catastrophe
The ocean is suffocating—but not for the first time.
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Mohammad Hannon / AP The Strange Future Hurricane Harvey Portends
Climate change is pushing more water into the atmosphere—with bizarre consequences.
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Mike Hollingshead / Corbis / Getty Burning Fossil Fuels Almost Ended All Life on Earth
A road trip through the geological ruins of our planet's worst mass extinction.
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NASA / Reuters Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction
“As scientists we have a responsibility to be accurate about such comparisons.”
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jamesteohart / svrid79 / Benny Marty / imaginasty ... A Possible Break in One of Evolution's Biggest Mysteries
Whales have a history that is among the strangest and least-understood of any animal—and barnacles might be the key to unlocking their secrets.
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Lucas Jackson / Reuters The Last Great Arctic Shipwreck
What we can learn from the ruins of the HMS Terror
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albund / shutterstock / Paul Spella / The ... Is Middle America Due For a Huge Earthquake?
In the early 19th century, a series of massive quakes rocked Missouri. Some experts predict that the state could be in for another round of violent shaking, while others warn that a big quake could strike elsewhere in the center of the continent.
