Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest for the first time 60 years ago today. Climbing is more common now — and the mountain has become a trash heap
Disasters
Tornadoes Were Just the Beginning. This Hurricane Season Is Going to be Stormy
The tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma may have caused more than $2 billion in damages. But that could pale in comparison to the destruction coming our way this hurricane season.
Tornado-Proofing Cities in the Age of Extreme Weather
Tornadoes will happen—and some towns, like Moore, may even be hit multiple times. But there are steps we can take to make homes and schools more resistant to tornadoes—and ensure that people survive the next twister, even if …
The Oklahoma Mega-Twister Is More Weather Than Climate Change
The unusually powerful tornado that killed more than 30 people in Oklahoma naturally raises worries that climate change could be bringing stronger storms. But the science doesn’t yet support that.
From Texas to China: When Man-Made Problems Make Natural Disasters Worse
The massive fertilizer explosion in Texas and the 6.6-magnitude earthquake in China were both accidents. But smarter preparation and policy may have been able to reduce the death toll
Mega-Eruption: Scientists Connect a Mass Extinction to a Major Lava Flow
Scientists have wondered why there was a major extinction wave some 200 million years ago. Now they suspect that a major explosion of lava that occurred around the same time may be the cause.
Watch the 2012 Atlantic Hurricane Season in 4.5 Minutes
This year’s storms in video format
After Sandy: An Environmentalist Goes Home
Sierra Club President Michael Brune grew up in the Jersey shore town of Chadwick Beach—which took a direct hit from Superstorm Sandy. This is what he saw when he came home.
After Sandy: Why We Can’t Keep Rebuilding on the Water’s Edge
It’s so obvious we forget it: an extreme-weather event becomes a disaster only if it hits where people and their possessions are. Of the 19 tropical storms that were tracked during this summer’s Atlantic hurricane season, 10 …
Sandy: What a Coastal U.S. Can Learn from Other Threatened Cities
It was called the Watersnoodramp, which in Dutch means “flood disaster”—and it certainly was. The North Sea flood of 1953 was the result of a high spring tide that met a strong storm, resulting in a storm surge that inundated …