Although reflecting away some sunlight before it hits the Earth could slow the melting of the ice sheets on the surface, it would be a very long time before this had any impact on the warming of the oceans, which is the most immediate threat to the big glaciers in West Antarctica. Nor would it do anything to reduce ocean acidification, which is cau

The public health risks of drinking water polluted by human waste are well documented. In 2010, some 10,000 people in Haiti died and hundreds of thousands more were sickened by cholera, in an epidemic resulting from the mishandling of septic tanks at a UN Peacekeeper camp and dumping into a river. As late as the 1920s, before the advent of modern s

Septic tanks are basically just well-engineered holes in the ground. When you flush the toilet, wastewater drains into a concrete tank. Fecal matter and other wastes stay in the tank, decomposing into a sludge, while liquids run off into a leach field that surrounds the tank. When it’s working properly, the soil around the leach field acts as a fil

“The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not you believe in it”).

Technology gives us power, but it also enfeebles us.

This statistic—the coastlines are growing, not declining—is sometimes used by climate skeptics to argue that sea-level rise is not such a big deal. If we lose some land to the sea, we can just build more. But simply to say that the total landmass on the planet is growing and not shrinking doesn’t tell you where the land is increasing or what it is

in the area. Herders were forced off their land, seeking food and water elsewhere. More than 1.5 million rural people were displaced, causing a massive migration into urban areas, where they bumped up against an influx of Iraqi and Palestinian refugees. When researchers asked one displaced Syrian farmer whether she thought the drought had caused th

In the world as it is, evidence that climate change is an engine of conflict is clear. The best example is Syria. In 2015, an exhaustive study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that rising CO2 pollution had made the 2007–2010 drought in Syria twice as likely to occur, and that the four-year drought had a “cataly

Koch, such talk vanished. Instead, Tea Party Republicans worked hard to undermine any connection between climate and national security.