Decades after the US buried nuclear waste abroad, climate change could unearth it – Grist Magazine

Aerial view of the Runit Dome (or Cactus Dome), Runit Island, Enewetak Atoll c. 1977-1980. The crater created by the Cactus shot of Operation Hardtack I was used as a burial pit to inter 84,000 cubic meters of radioactive soil scraped from the various contaminated Enewetak Atoll islands Courtesy of US Defense Special Weapons Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia).

A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from U.S. nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands…The report summarizes disagreements between Marshall Islands officials and the U.S. Department of Energy regarding the risks posed by U.S. nuclear waste. The GAO recommends that the agency adopt a communications strategy for conveying information about the potential for pollution to the Marshallese people.

Ocean Wonders: A Symphony of Smells – Hakai Institute

Screenshot from Hakai Institute video, Ocean Wonders: A Symphony of Smells, via Youtube.

“Take a whiff of the sea breeze. What happens to that scent when you sink below the surface? It turns out the sense of smell is crucial to those living in the deep. Hold your breath—but not your nose—as we explore olfaction in the ocean…”

10 Unique Beaches From Around the World – Atlas Obscura

An otherworldly landscape of twisted trees in Georgia. A marshland of bright red grass on China’s Red Beach. A Wisconsin beach so beautiful, that taking rocks from it is illegal. An island of pink shores and Komodo dragons in Indonesia. If you’re looking for a unique beach, these ten places each offer something unexpected…

Category 6-level hurricanes are already here, a new study says – Grist Magazine

In early September 2019, a loose chain of tropical cyclones lined up across the Western Hemisphere.(by Joshua Stevens, using GOES 16 imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Caption by Kathryn Hansen, courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory,)

In the real world, Category 5 is synonymous with the biggest and baddest storms. But some U.S. scientists are making the case that it no longer captures the intensity of recent hurricanes. A paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a framework for extending the current hurricane-rating system…with a new category for storms that have winds topping 192 miles per hour. According to the study, the world has already seen storms that would qualify as Category 6s…