Plastic bags are everywhere — tucked under kitchen sinks, crumpled in car trunks, and stuffed into that one drawer we all pretend doesn’t exist....

For decades, roads in America’s national forests have been essential tools for firefighting and land management. Yet, a newly released study suggests that roads may also be one of the nation’s most overlooked wildfire catalysts, raising serious concerns about proposed federal changes to forest protections. The research, published in Fire Ecology Journal by scientists affiliated with the Wilderness Society, analyzed fire patterns across U.S. Forest Service regions between 1992 and 2024. The findings reveal a stark pattern: proximity to roads significantly increases wildfire risk, while untouched wilderness areas remain remarkably resilient. According to the study, lands located within 164 feet of roads experienced the highest wildfire ignition rates, averaging nearly eight fires per 2,471 acres. In contrast,...

In the heart of a Nordic winter, the global climate science community gathered with a clear purpose: to sharpen the world’s understanding of how climate change is reshaping cities—and how cities, in turn, can shape the climate future. From January 12 to 16, 2026, more than 100 scientists representing 56 countries convened in Oslo, Norway, for the Third Lead Author Meeting of the Special Report on Climate Change and Cities. The meeting, hosted by the Norwegian government, marked a significant milestone in the preparation of a landmark assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This Special Report is the only such focused study planned within the IPCC’s seventh assessment cycle. Scheduled for publication in 2027,...