Chances are, the last time you were at the beach, ocean physics wasn't paramount on your mind. However, that glistening expanse of frothy blue is more than just a pretty sight. In fact, it is one of the biggest drivers of both weather and climate on Earth.

Each year, hurricanes and tropical cyclones pose a looming threat to countries all over the world—not only for fear of life and limb, but also for their catastrophic effects on regional economies.

The Earth's climate is changing rapidly, and effects of this transition are evident on all scales. Despite the fact that most people acknowledge the reality of climate change, however, few appear to take meaningful action to combat it.

Mashapaug Pond, in southwest Providence, was once the site of a bustling industrial plant called the Gorham Manufacturing Company. From the late-19th century until the middle of the 21st, the Gorham factory churned out some of the country's finest silverware and bronze casts, all the while pumping large quantities of effluent into the soil and water.

Nature is full of surprising interactions between species. Whether it's by working together, avoiding each other, competing with one another, or making a meal out of one another, species are connected in a variety of ways.

Brian Lander, formerly a Ziff Environmental Fellow at Harvard University, joins the ranks of IBES fellows this fall as Assistant Professor of History.

The Earth Science Women's Network, a networking organization for women geoscientists, will be presented with a Special Award at this year's annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society.

Effective January 1, 2017, Leah VanWey, Professor of Sociology and current Deputy Director of Research at IBES, will become Brown's newest Associate Provost for Academic Space.

The transparency gap—the distance between donor countries' pledged climate adaptation finance and the trackable reality—has collectively expanded since the Paris negotiations, say researchers from AdaptationWatch in their new report Towards Transparency.

IBES sociologist Scott Frickel and collaborators have released a new book, out today from Rutgers University Press.

One fine day in the 9th century BCE, bands of traders and colonists from the Middle East set sail across the Mediterranean Sea, headed for the island of Sardinia. There, they found an indigenous society living among giant stone towers called nuraghi, occupying modest dwellings built into the rocky monuments and herding cattle for sustenance.

One hundred years from now, our planet is likely to be a very different place. Earth's climate is already changing, threatening vulnerable ecosystems the world over. Many scientists consider a major global extinction event to be all but inevitable within the next century.

In 1986, a massive storm whipped through the small Arctic town of Barrow, Alaska, swallowing the face of an ancient cliff and revealing an archaeological surprise: a human foot, encased in a traditional mukluk, protruding from the reshaped bluff.

Bathsheba Demuth, a former Brown undergraduate, returns to campus this Fall—this time, as an IBES fellow and Assistant Professor of History.

Early lead exposure affects cognitive health throughout the lifespan.

Intense heat has long been recognized as an insidious threat to public health. Indeed, as the mercury rises, so too do emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and even deaths.

With its white sandy beaches, crystal blue waters, and gently swaying palm trees, Viraj Sikand ‘17.5 describes Msambweni, Kenya as the picture of a tropical oasis.
But there is trouble in paradise.