A huge iceberg just broke off West Antarctica’s most endangered glacier

On the ice-covered edge of a remote West Antarctic bay, the continent’s most imperiled glaciers threaten to redraw Earth’s coastlines. Pine Island Glacier and its neighbor Thwaites Glacier are the gateway to a massive cache of frozen water, one that would raise global sea levels by four feet if it were all to spill into the sea. And that gateway is shattering before our eyes.

Arctic ice melt is changing ocean currents

A major ocean current in the Arctic is faster and more turbulent as a result of rapid sea ice melt, a new study from NASA shows. The current is part of a delicate Arctic environment that is now flooded with fresh water, an effect of human-caused climate change.

In the Afro-Caribbean heart of Puerto Rico, locals fight erosion

The waves crashed loudly on the collapsed ruins of the Paseo del Atlántico, a walkway that once partially protected residents here from the volatile ocean. Erosion along this northernmost coast of Puerto Rico, nearly 20 miles east of San Juan, precipitated the promenade’s destruction, it finally fell into the Atlantic, exposing the Parcelas Suárez neighborhood to the water’s edge.

Beach access is a line in the sand that needs revisiting by Florida lawmakers

The beach belongs, by law, to the people of Florida — the part that gets wet, that is. However, some 60 percent of Florida’s beaches front private lands, and even renourishment projects funded by taxpayers do not guarantee access to the beach. As more beaches wash away, individual landowners are unlikely to see this loss as theirs alone.