Author: Errica Jensen

The John F. Kennedy International Airport’s departure boards were already crimson by the middle of the morning. Flights to New York were canceled. As though the airport were stuttering, the phrase was repeated gate after gate, line after line. Outside, a fine white crust covered parked aircraft as snow whipped sideways across the tarmac. Bundled in neon jackets, ground crews moved carefully between idle jets, their boots vanishing into drifts that were accumulating more quickly than plows could clear them. Overnight, Winter Storm Hernando, also known as a “bomb cyclone,” grew stronger, causing its pressure to drop sharply and causing…

Before dawn, the departure boards started to turn red. The word “Cancelled” began to recur at Dubai International Airport, which is typically a ballet of long-haul connections and polished efficiency, in subtly defying the norm. The same scene played out in Doha, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv, and Beirut in a matter of hours. Flights to the Middle East were canceled. No delay. Not redirected. canceled. The trigger was set off quickly: US and Israeli strikes on Iran were followed by drone and missile launches across the Gulf in retaliation. There was a complete or partial closure of airspace over Iran,…

Rarely do the departure boards at Dubai International Airport appear muted. They typically flicker with cities ranging from Los Angeles to Lagos, São Paulo to Sydney. However, something felt different on Sunday morning. The word “cancelled” was repeatedly spelled in rows of red letters. Flights to Dubai were canceled. No delay. Not rescheduled. canceled. It was swift. Airspace over portions of the Gulf was suddenly closed after retaliatory missile activity and increasing military strikes throughout the region. Emirates halted flights to and from Dubai within a few hours. Flights from Abu Dhabi were suspended by Etihad. Flydubai and Air Arabia…

When someone is standing on the deck of an Antarctic research vessel, the first thing they notice is the silence. The Southern Ocean moves with a heavy, purposeful rhythm beneath the howling wind and moaning ice. It makes no announcements about its changes. They are absorbed by it. For many years, Antarctica was viewed as a far-off white continent that was responding to climate change more slowly than the Arctic. That presumption is eroding. Even seasoned polar scientists have been surprised by the rate at which the sea ice surrounding Antarctica has decreased since 2014. Once displaying a comparatively stable…

In northern Germany, the wind turbines stood nearly still on a dreary January afternoon. Normally slicing through North Sea gusts, their blades appeared to be suspended in contemplation. Ironically, in a nation that is staking its future on the sun and wind, there are days when neither materializes. Germany has always had high goals for its Energiewende, or energy transition. More than half of the nation’s electricity is now generated by renewable sources, a remarkable increase from just 6% at the beginning of the century. With 80% of electricity coming from renewable sources by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2045,…

The quiet following high tide is the first thing one notices in coastal Bangladesh. On what were once rice fields, a layer of white salt is left behind as the water recedes. That thin layer of white feels like a verdict in villages all over Khulna and Satkhira. Even though there may never be a formal declaration that these areas are uninhabitable, the evidence is already there, burning the roots of anything that tries to grow and fracturing the soil. By 2050, scientists predict that up to 17% of Bangladesh’s coastal territory may be under water. That number is frequently…

Something that many scientists quietly assumed would not happen—at least not there, and not yet—took place in East Antarctica in mid-March 2022. In a matter of weeks, the Conger Ice Shelf, a floating slab of ice about the size of New York City, broke apart. The change was visible in satellite photos, which showed a solid white platform breaking into a mosaic of floating shards against the dark ocean water. East Antarctica was thought to be the continent’s stable half for many years; it was a chilly, sheltered region that was impervious to the kind of spectacular collapses that occurred…

It doesn’t appear that the Pantanal should burn. For the majority of the year, it is a glistening patchwork of grass and water, with flooded plains extending toward a horizon only occasionally interrupted by wooden cattle fences and palm trees. Lazily, herons rise from marshes. In the mud, jaguars leave silent footprints. The smell of slow-moving rivers and damp earth fills the air. However, something seems strange lately. The soil fissures are growing, and the water that formerly characterized this terrain is retreating. It’s hard to ignore the alarming rate at which Brazil’s Pantanal wetlands are drying up. Water surface…

A freight locomotive rolled silently along a section of track between Aulnoye and Busigny on a gloomy morning in northern France. There was no cheering crowd, no dramatic unveiling. Radar feeds and lidar readings flickered across monitors as engineers inside the cab watched screens rather than the horizon. The moment felt both routine and subtly historic as France tested fully autonomous cargo trains on high-speed routes. The project has been underway for a number of years, spearheaded by SNCF in partnership with Alstom, Thales, Bosch, and the Railenium Institute. Around 2020, early prototypes started operating with some autonomy before progressively…

Students stroll across the United Arab Emirates University campus on a warm afternoon in Al Ain, phones in hand and backpacks slung low. Until you hear someone discussing orbital mechanics, asteroid trajectories, and spacecraft subsystems, it appears to be just another typical university day. The horizon seems farther away now that the UAE University has launched a program in Interplanetary Systems Engineering. The new program comes at a time when the nation’s aspirations in space are no longer merely symbolic. The Hope Probe’s voyage to Mars continues to be a source of pride for the country, and the Emirates Mission…