Climate

A member of the Pakanyo tribe stands near a fire set in protected forest land at Chiang Mai province, Thailand, Monday, April 22, 2024. The Pakanyo, who have carried out the practice of controlled burns as long as they have lived in these hills near Chiang Mai, a top tourist destination, say they get blamed by city dwellers for fouling the air and damaging forest land. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

As Thailand gasps through another haze season, researchers hope a fire-charting app can help

Thailand has tried for years to deal with its pollution problem. One big reason is the burning of corn stubble to clear fields for the next planting, a time of year from February to April that’s known as “haze season.”
 
Muslim pilgrims use umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun as they gather outside Nimrah Mosque to offer the noon prayers in Arafat, on the second day of the annual hajj pilgrimage, near the holy city of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, June 15, 2024. Masses of Muslims gathered at the sacred hill of Mount Arafat in Saudi Arabia for worship and reflection on the second day of the Hajj pilgrimage. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

CLIMATE GLIMPSE: Scorching Northern Hemisphere heat leads to deaths and wildfires

 
Marine biologist Linda Albonetti releases a turtle named Vulcano into the Adriatic Sea in a no-fishing zone off the coast of Marina di Ravenna, Italy, Saturday, June 8, 2024. A nonprofit rescues and treats injured turtles that are sometimes hurt by trawlers. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Sea turtles are under threat from trawlers in the Adriatic. A center offers them a sanctuary

 
A firefighter passes flames burning along West Dry Creek Rd. in Healdsburg, Calif. on Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

LA’s Post Fire hampers firefighters working in sweltering conditions and steep terrain

 
Renee Martin performs her cicada striptease in fishnet stockings and a cicada nymph puppet costume in a Cincinnati ally on Tuesday, June 4, 2024. The periodical cicadas that have blanketed parts of the American Midwest this spring are strange creatures, but they have nothing on some of their superfans. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Think cicadas are weird? Check out superfans, who eat the bugs, use them in art and even striptease

 

FEATURED

Tourists swim in the cenote "Dos Ojos," or Two Eyes, on the outskirts of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Saturday, March 9, 2024. These glowing sinkhole lakes, known as cenotes, are a part of one of Mexico's natural wonders: A fragile system of thousands of subterranean caverns, rivers, and lakes that wind beneath Mexico's southern Yucatan peninsula. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

In Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, a hidden underground world is under threat by the Maya Train

 
Sumini, a leader of a female ranger group, uses a machete to clear the way during a forest patrol in Damaran Baru, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. The patrol group was started by Sumini, who witnessed the devastating effects of deforestation on her local village. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

In Indonesia, women ranger teams go on patrol to slow deforestation

 
A Spix's macaw perches in a tree in a breeding facility project in its native habitat in a rural area of Curaca, Bahia state, Brazil, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. A South African couple is reintroducing the Spix’s macaw to nature through breeding and reintroduction efforts. Despite challenges such as habitat loss, climate change and government disagreements, they are working with local communities to return the bird to its native habitat. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Recovery of Brazil’s Spix’s macaw, popularized in animated ‘Rio’ films, threatened by climate change

 
Yaad Ali, right, and his wife Monuwara Begum collect chile peppers from his garden in Sandahkhaiti, a floating island village in the Brahmaputra River in Morigaon district, Assam, India, Thursday, April 25, 2024. Ali and his family cultivate red chile peppers, corn and a few other vegetables in their small farm on the island. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

Resigned to a fate of constant displacement, India’s river islanders return home in between floods

 
Farmer Shi Mei walks near solar panels on her rooftop in the rural outskirts of Jinan in eastern China's Shandong province on March 21, 2024. The Shi family is on the leading edge of a solar boom in China, which has long dominated global solar manufacturing but didn't always install a lot of it at home. She gets paid for every watt of electricity generated. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Corn, millet and ... rooftop solar? Farm family’s newest crop shows China’s solar ascendancy

 
Residents in Machakos County, Kenya, construct a sand dam on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. Building sand dams, a structure for harvesting water from seasonal rivers, helps minimize water loss through evaporation and recharges groundwater. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers

 

Surfing in Tahiti: 2024 Paris Olympics

Kids surf small waves along the beach after school in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

Hundreds are set to descend on Tahiti for Olympic surfing. Can locals protect their way of life?

 
Naiki Vaast spearfishes along the coral reef in Vairao, Tahiti, French Polynesia, Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Daniel Cole)

In Teahupo’o, Tahiti, coastal village life thrives among powerful waves

 

The demise of the Aral Sea

Graves are visible near the dried-up Aral Sea outside Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

On the Aral Sea, graves rise above the dust. They’re reminders of the life its waters once sustained

 
Light is reflected on part of the Aral Sea outside Muynak, Uzbekistan, Sunday, June 25, 2023. The destruction of the Aral Sea in Central Asia has been labeled by the U.N. as the most staggering disaster of the 20th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Climate change is fueling the disappearance of the Aral Sea. It’s taking residents’ livelihoods, too

 
Ali Shadilov, left, and Anvar Saimbetov pose in front of an old boat in the area where the Aral Sea once was in Muynak, Uzbekistan, Tuesday, June 27, 2023. The Associated Press interviewed Shadilov and others in Muynak, Uzbekistan – all residents in their 60s and 70s who’ve long been tied to the sea, or what remains of it. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

These men once relied on the Aral Sea. Today, the dry land is a reminder of lost livelihoods

 
A child plays inside a rusted dilapidated car along the dried-up Aral Sea, in the village of Tastubek near Aralsk, Kazakhstan, Monday, July 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

The Aral Sea has all but disappeared. But in small towns and villages, signs of life are popping up

 

Gulf oil spill: Workers left behind

FILE - A cleanup worker picks up blobs of oil in absorbent snare on Queen Bess Island at the mouth of Barataria Bay near the Gulf of Mexico in Plaquemines Parish, La., June 4, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing

 
FILE - A worker pulls an oil boom that a current pinned against a pier in Caminada Pass in Grand Isle, La., May 22, 2010. When a deadly explosion destroyed BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of thousands of ordinary people were hired to help clean up the environmental devastation. These workers were exposed to crude oil and the chemical dispersant Corexit while picking up tar balls along the shoreline, laying booms from fishing boats to soak up slicks and rescuing oil-covered birds. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Takeaways from AP’s story on the BP oil spill medical settlement’s shortcomings

 
John Maas poses for a portrait Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023, in Sparta, Tenn. Thousands of people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick, including Maas. Attorneys familiar with the issue say he's the only one who has received a settlement after suing. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

BP defeated thousands of suits by sick Gulf spill cleanup workers. But not one by a boat captain

 

Read more

FILE - Workers build the stands for the upcoming Olympic Games on the Champ-de-Mars just beside the Eiffel Tower, in Paris, April 1, 2024 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla, File)

Paris is aiming for the most sustainable Olympics yet. Organizers acknowledge the plan isn’t perfect

 
A vendor selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

E-waste is overflowing landfills. At one sprawling Vietnam market, workers recycle some of it

 
Mark Woodruff operates a planter in a soybean field, Monday, April 22, 2024, in Sabina, Ohio. As climate change drives an increase in spring rains across the Midwest, it can mean more anxiety for farmers eager to carry out the ritual of spring planting. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

For farmers, watching and waiting is a spring planting ritual. Climate change is adding to anxiety

 
A water truck worker fills a container outside the homes of residents who use it for drinking, cooking and cleaning, in the Pamplona Alta area in Lima, Peru, Friday, March 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Drought, heat and mismanagement make getting fresh water an increasingly tough task

 
Billy Barr holds his canister with newly fallen snow Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Gothic, Colo. So-called “citizen scientists” like Barr have long played important roles in gathering data to help researchers better understand the environment. His once hand-recorded measurements have informed numerous scientific papers and helped calibrate aerial snow sensing tools. (AP Photo/Brittany Peterson)

Citizen scientist measured Rockies snowfall for 50 years. Two new hips help him keep going

 
A periodical cicada nymph is held in Macon, Ga., Wednesday, March 27, 2024. This periodical cicada nymph was found while digging holes for rosebushes. Trillions of cicadas are about to emerge in numbers not seen in decades and possibly centuries.(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Invaders from underground are coming in cicada-geddon. It’s the biggest bug emergence in centuries

 
A worker surveys Vo Van Van's rice fields after spraying fertilizer over the fields using a drone in Long An province in southern Vietnam's Mekong Delta, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. Using less water and using a drone to fertilize are new techniques that Van is trying and Vietnam hopes will help solve a paradox at the heart of growing rice: The finicky crop isn't just vulnerable to climate change but also contributes uniquely to it. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

In Vietnam, farmers reduce methane emissions by changing how they grow rice

 
Scientific diver Morgan Murphy-Cannella holds bull kelp with a dark patch of reproductive spores as she surveys a reforestation project, Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, near Caspar, Calif. Kelp forests play an integral role in the health of the world’s oceans, one of the issues being discussed at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

From urchin crushing to lab-grown kelp, efforts to save California’s kelp forests show promise

 
(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)

How did humans get to the brink of crashing climate?

 
Firefighter Chris Fritz works to keep the Aero Fire from spreading through the Copperopolis community of Calaveras County, Calif., on Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Firefighters gain ground against Southern California wildfire but face dry, windy weather

Officials say firefighters have increased their containment of a large wildfire that is threatening critical infrastructure in mountains north of Los Angeles.
 
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, an aerial drone photo taken on June 16, 2024 shows a landslide in an area affected by torrential rains in Tieshan Township of Zhenghe County, Nanping City in southeastern China's Fujian Province. Southern China was reeling Tuesday from heavy rains that triggered landslides killing at least nine people, knocking out power for entire villages and burying crops. Meanwhile, northern parts of the country are battling drought, as the country faces two extremes of severe weather.(Huang Jiemin/Xinhua via AP)

Southern China faces heavy floods, and landslides kill at least 9

Southern China has been reeling from heavy rains that triggered landslides killing at least nine people, knocking out power for entire villages and burying crops.
 
FILE-The Titan launch barge is moved to the Coast Guard yard at port in St. John's, Newfoundland in this June 24, 2023, file photo. The deadly implosion of an experimental submersible en route to the deep-sea grave of the Titanic last June has not dulled the desire for deep-sea exploration. Tuesday, June 18, 2024, marks one year since the Titan vanished on its way to the historic wreckage site. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP, file)

What to know as undersea explorers mark a year since the tragic Titan disaster

Unanswered questions linger a year after the implosion of the Titan submersible during its deep-sea voyage to the wreckage of the Titanic.
 
Dan McLean, shown Wednesday, March 6, 2024, points to where Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed carbon dioxide pipeline would cross his land near Menoken, N.D. The project has drawn opposition from numerous Midwestern landowners, including McLean. (AP Photo/Jack Dura)

Biofuel groups envision ethanol-powered jets. But fueling the effort has not been easy

Farming and biofuels organizations are hopeful that ethanol could be used to power passenger jets, but making that dream a reality hasn’t been easy.
 
Hunter Van Dyne pauses to wipe sweat from his forehead inside a hot fireworks tent as he works to set up for the opening of Powder Monkey Fireworks, in Weldon Spring, Mo., Monday, June 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Record-breaking US heat wave scorches the Midwest as New York activates the National Guard

Extreme heat alerts are in effect for tens of millions of people in the United States as cities including Chicago break heat records.
 
Toyota shareholders arrive for a meeting in Toyota, Aichi prefecture, central Japan Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Toyota shareholders voted Tuesday in support of all the company's proposals, including keeping Akio Toyoda, grandson of the Japanese automaker’s founder, as chairman on the board. (Kyodo News via AP)

Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota founder, wins shareholders’ approval to stay in leadership

Toyota shareholders have voted in support of all of the company’s proposals at their annual meeting, including keeping Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the Japanese automaker’s founder, as chairman of the board.
 
FILE - Nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the pipeline near St. Ignace, Mich., as Enbridge Inc. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's lawsuit seeking to shut down part of a petroleum pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac belongs in state court, a federal appellate panel ruled Monday. (Dale G Young/Detroit News via AP, File)

Federal appellate panel sends Michigan pipeline challenge to state court

A federal appellate panel says a Michigan state judge will have to decide whether to shut down a portion of an aging petroleum pipeline running beneath the Straits of Mackinac.
 
Wyatt Seymore pours the last drops of liquid from a water bottle into his mouth as he takes a break from unloading a stiflingly hot trailer of fireworks outside Powder Monkey Fireworks ahead of the opening of the stand, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Weldon Spring, Mo. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

If you can’t stay indoors during this US heat wave, here are a few ideas

It’s hot and getting hotter for workers and everyone else outdoors as the first significant heat wave of the year makes its way eastward across the United States.
 
Residents of rural Hinds County, Miss., express their disappointment with the county's Board of Supervisors approving what could become the state's largest solar energy project, over their objections, Monday, June 17, 2024, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Supervisors vote to allow solar panel farm in central Mississippi over residents’ objections

A county board in central Mississippi has approved what could become the state’s largest solar energy project.
 

7 people die in events related to heavy rains in El Salvador

Seven people have died in separate events in El Salvador that authorities attributed to heavy rains that have persisted since the weekend.
 
Senate President Pro Tem Philip Baruth, D-Chittenden, left, and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman speak during a veto override session on Monday, June 17, 2024, at the State House in Montpelier, Vt. The Democrat-controlled Vermont legislature has returned to the Statehouse to try to override Republican Gov. Phil Scott’s vetoes. (Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/The Times Argus via AP)

Vermont Legislature overrides governor, passing overdose prevention, renewable energy, tax measures

The Democratic-controlled Vermont Legislature on Monday overturned a number of the Republican governor’s vetoes, passing measures to prevent drug overdoses, restrict a pesticide that’s toxic to bees and to require state utilities to source all renewable energy by 2035.
 
FILE - A water meter stands in a dry wetland in Donana natural park, southwest Spain, on Oct. 19, 2022. European Union countries on Monday, June 17, 2024, gave final approval to a major and long-awaited plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc. After surviving a razor-thin vote by lawmakers last summer, the so-called Nature Restoration Plan faced opposition from several member states for months amid relentless farmers’ protests that contributed to leave the bill in a deadlock. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue, File)

Landmark EU nature restoration plan gets the green light despite months of protests by farmers

European Union countries have given final approval to a major and long-awaited plan to better protect nature in the 27-nation bloc.
 
Kids cool off at Gallagher Way park fountain during hot weather in Chicago, Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Over 75 million people in the US are under heat alerts. Go indoors and hydrate

Over 75 million people in the United States are under extreme heat alerts as a heat wave moves eastward.
 
FILE-Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John's, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. The deadly implosion of an experimental submersible en route to the deep-sea grave of the Titanic last June has not dulled the desire for deep-sea exploration. Tuesday, June 18, 2024, marks one year since the Titan vanished on its way to the historic wreckage site. (Paul Daly/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

A year after the Titan’s tragic dive, deep-sea explorers vow to pursue ocean’s mysteries

The deadly implosion of an experimental submersible en route to the deep-sea grave of the Titanic last June has not dulled the desire for ocean exploration.
 
Workers clean oil spill along Sentosa's Tanjong Beach area in Singapore, Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

Singapore says dredger that hit tanker reported sudden loss of control, oil spill cleanup ongoing

Singapore authorities say a dredger boat reported a sudden loss in engine and steering control before it hit a cargo tanker last week, causing the oil spill that has blackened part of the city-island’s southern shores.
 
A boy cools off at a fountain outside Wrigley Field before a baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals as hot weather descends upon the Chicago area Sunday, June 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

Severe, chaotic weather around US with high temperatures in Southwest and Midwest, snow in Rockies

Extreme weather that ranged from triple digit temperatures in the Southwest to unseasonable cold in the Pacific Northwest was forecast over the U.S. into the early week.
 
Ferrari 499P Hybrid Hypercar WEC's team, Spanish driver Miguel Molina, right, Italian driver Antonio Fuoco, left, and Danish driver Nicklas Nielsen, center, celebrate on the podium after winning Le 24 Hours of Le Mans sports-car race Sunday, June 16, 2024, in Le Mans, France. (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)

Ferrari overcomes late drama to hang on for second consecutive 24 Hours of Le Mans victory

Ferrari has made it two in a row as it outlasted Toyota to win a weather-affected 24 Hours of Le Mans with the trio of Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina crossing the line in the No. 50 car 14 seconds ahead of the No. 7 of Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.
 
Smoke from a wildfire drifts over Troodos mountain between villages Farmakas and Fikardou in Nicosia district in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Cyprus records a second death from heatstroke as temperatures soar

A Cyprus health official says a second elderly person has died from heatstroke after a weeklong heatwave that baked the east Mediterranean island nation with reportedly record temperatures for the month of June.
 
A child reacts to a mist machine as he cools off from the summer heat in Beijing, Saturday, June 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

China is getting too much rain in the south and not enough rain, plus a heat wave, in the north

China is being buffeted by two extremes of severe weather, with heavy rain and flooding in parts of the south and a heat wave and drought conditions in the north.
 
Workers clean oil spill along Sentosa's Tanjong Beach area in Singapore, Sunday, June 16, 2024. An oil spill caused by a dredger boat hitting a stationary cargo tanker has blackened part of Singapore’s southern coastline, including the popular resort island of Sentosa, and sparked concerns it may threaten marine wildlife. (AP Photo/Suhaimi Abdullah)

Singapore rushes to clean up oil slick after boat hits stationary fuel supply ship

A cleanup was underway after an oil spill caused by a dredger boat hitting a stationary cargo tanker blackened part of Singapore’s southern coastline.