Environment

A farmer stands above a deep crack in the dried mud of an earthen embankment in his rice fields near Chongqing, China, on Sunday. The government says it will try to protect China's grain harvest from record-setting drought by using chemicals to generate r

China plans to use chemicals to generate rain to protect its grain harvest

11:57am August 21, 2022

by The Associated Press

The hottest, driest summer since the government began recording rainfall and temperature 61 years ago has wilted crops and left reservoirs at half their normal water level.

This aerial photo shows Belize-registered cargo ship Xin Hai 99 after a collision off of Kushimoto, Wakayama prefecture in southwestern Japan on Saturday.

A chemical tanker and cargo ship crashed near southwestern Japan

6:29am August 20, 2022

by The Associated Press

Some oil leaked from the engine area of the cargo ship, which initially started to sink, but it was brought under control, an official with the Kushimoto Coast Guard said.

Now extinct, a Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) is seen in the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania in 1933.

A plan to bring the Tasmanian tiger back from extinction raises questions

5:00am August 20, 2022

by Bill Chappell

The thylacine had trademark stripes and, rare in the animal world, abdominal pouches in both females and males. The last known specimen died in a zoo in 1936.

States dependent on Colorado River wonder if desalination could help the water supply

4:30pm August 19, 2022

by Alex Hager

Severe drought has states dependent on the Colorado River looking at alternatives. Desalinating seawater may be a viable supplement to some areas, but likely can't fix much of the river's deficit.

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The sun shines near the Space Needle, Monday, June 28, 2021, in Seattle.

Environment

Seattle just had one of its hottest nights on record

5:52am August 19, 2022

by Ayana Archie

The nightly temperature reached 71 degrees Fahrenheit, one of only three nights in the city's climate record where the nighttime temperature rose above 70 degrees.

Students carrying umbrellas stand on the dry riverbed of the Jialing River in southwestern China's Chongqing Municipality, Friday, Aug. 19, 2022.

The Yangtze River is shrinking as drought disrupts the world's No. 2 economy

5:18am August 19, 2022

by The Associated Press

The disruption adds to challenges for the ruling Communist Party, which is trying to shore up sagging economic growth.

A mural in memory of Mary Luten, 59, who died while saving others in the Waverly flood, sits on display at The Walls Art Park. The flood on Aug. 21, 2021, killed 20 people and damaged more than 700 homes.

In a flood-ravaged Tennessee town, uncertainty hangs over the recovery

5:00am August 19, 2022

by Damon Mitchell

It's been one year since a flood tore through Waverly, Tenn., and killed 20 people. There's been lots of effort to rebuild, but it's still unclear if the town will ever be the same.

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Jewish townspeople of the village of Nasielsk, Poland in 1938.

'The Territory' and 'Three Minutes: A Lengthening' find cinematic hope in tragedy

6:22pm August 18, 2022

by Bob Mondello

A pair of documentaries gleans what it can from a pre-WWII home movie and Indigenous efforts to halt the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

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The Biden administration aims to make nature a measurable part of the U.S. economy

5:38pm August 18, 2022

by Nathan Rott

Environmental damage is a threat to the global economy but it's hardly counted in economic figures like the GDP. The Biden administration is unveiling an effort to give a more holistic accounting.

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A spotted lanternfly creeps on the ground during a baseball game in Pittsburgh in 2021.

What a pest! Spotted lanternflies are spreading in the U.S.

5:00am August 18, 2022

by Jaclyn Diaz

State officials are calling on residents to get involved and kill these bugs at all costs. The spotted lanternfly isn't dangerous to humans or pets but could cost the country's agricultural industry.