At picnics and World Cup watch parties across the United States this summer, people have been reaching for bowls of chips and guacamole. Most of that guacamole is made from avocados grown in Mexico – on orchards that, in what might come as a surprise, contribute less water pollution today than they did a decade ago.

There’s a ...Read more

A few weeks back I wrote about removing your hard drive before you donate or recycle an old computer.

Occasionally, a reader will send me a follow up question about a column, but every once in a while, several people will write to me to point out a mistake or omission.

Today, I woke up to five emails from readers asking the same question: �...Read more

One of the rising trends in mechanical keyboards is the low-profile variants. These are lighter versions of the devices that act as a happy medium for the hobby. They have the joyous click of switches, but the portability, ergonomics and comfort of the membrane-style ones seen on laptops.

The one part holding back this category is that it isn...Read more

It might be hard to get excited about a portable power station since they're no longer a new or exclusive product category. But Anker's new Solix S2000 defies that expectation.

If I had to describe it in just two words, they'd be "necessary" and "efficient." But limiting it to two words hardly does it justice. I'd also call it user-friendly, ...Read more

Along with ongoing coverage of the latest bombings and missile and drone attacks in Iran and the oil-rich Gulf states, extreme weather events are also providing lead segments on evening news programs this summer. What you don’t see in much of the TV coverage, at least not since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term as ...Read more

Retail bettors are piling into long-shot multi-leg bets on prediction-market platforms, opening up a lucrative opportunity for sophisticated traders taking the other side.

Combo wagers, known as parlays in sports gambling, let users bundle multiple outcomes into a single bet. One popular combo for the World Cup final had Spain leading at ...Read more

As Maryland grapples with soaring electricity demand and rising energy costs, a Rockville-based nuclear company is betting that a new generation of small reactors could eventually help power the state — even as its first projects are being developed hundreds of miles away.

X-Energy Inc., with a Rockville headquarters and Frederick testing ...Read more

You’ve been planning your dream beach vacation for months, only to arrive and find the shoreline covered in large piles of smelly, brown seaweed, with even more floating offshore. It’s disappointing, for sure – and increasingly common.

Since 2011, summer scenes like this have played out on beaches in South Florida and throughout...Read more

A recent decision by a French court requires a major European oil and gas company to report not only its own climate-warming emissions and those of its contractors but also those of its customers, who burn the oil and petroleum products the company sells.

The court’s ruling against TotalEnergies, under a French law passed in 2017, ...Read more

LAS VEGAS — Four years ago, Lake Mead hit a historic low, a harbinger of the threat facing Southern Nevada’s primary water source.

Lake Mead reached its record low of 1,040.58 feet above sea level on July 27, 2022. As Lake Mead’s water level continues to trend downward over the past 20 years, conditions this year have stressed its supply ...Read more

It’s no secret: This year has been a bad one so far for severe thunderstorms around Pittsburgh. In fact, it has been quite an active season throughout the Ohio Valley and a large part of the Midwest.

How bad has it been? In the months of March, April, May and June 2026, Pennsylvania saw a whopping 852 reports of severe weather. By ...Read more

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck in a rut while cooped up all day at a nine-to-five job, or just felt stressed about work, school or life in general, you’re not alone. Hearing “just go outside” might sound like trivial advice, but researchers have been investigating a new, unconventional strategy to boost mental health: Seeking the...Read more

MIAMI — The Queen Conch, a giant sea snail and unofficial mascot of the Florida Keys, was listed as endangered on Valentine’s Day, 2022. Once a species is listed under the Endangered Species Act, the federal government has to identify and protect the “critical habitat” essential to its recovery.

That still hasn’t happened.

The ...Read more

The latest transatlantic technology brouhaha unfolded on Instagram.

During a week in June when the leaders of the Group of Seven descended on France and Paris held its flagship technology conference, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu took to the platform better known for aspirational travel content to announce his government was seeking...Read more

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly one-third of the world’s fertilizer normally passes, has made clear that access to nutrients for crops remains as strategically important in the 21st century as access to oil.

As an environmental historian, I study how fertilizer transformed the modern world. That history is...Read more

Before Rick Walker retired and became an owl monitor at the Rainbow Owl Preserve in the northwest valley, he was a dentist in New Orleans.

Walker said there’s a common thread between the two pursuits: watching his patients and the western burrowing owls grow up.

“It was great because you got to see families grow up,” he said. “Same ...Read more

The early 1900s were a very bad time to be a bird. On average, more than 5 million were killed every year — not for sustenance, but to feed perhaps the most frivolous of trades: plume-topped hats.

Ostentatious headwear made of egrets and other animals — some of which featured an entire taxidermied body— was so popular at the start of the ...Read more

Chandler Bondurant fly-fishes in the Boise River every day, but since the first week of July, the only thing he’s caught is slime.

“It’s pretty much unfishable in town,” Bondurant told the Idaho Statesman.

As soon as he casts his line, brown globs floating through the water get caught on his hook and the knots in his line. “If you ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — As wildfires rage across Canada and the American West, the announcement from federal forecasters that an El Niño warming is forming thousands of miles away in the tropical Pacific Ocean may offer some regions relief — next year, at least.

The El Niño climate pattern materializes erratically every two to seven years and can ...Read more